tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-218065382024-03-08T06:23:02.197+11:00What's with today, today?Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.comBlogger225125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-8366346206934537232024-01-12T23:14:00.003+11:002024-01-12T23:14:50.568+11:0020 years of reading - the authors<p>Onto the final post in this short series! Where we find out: who are the writers of these books? Well, for starters, they are mostly women. Overall, 60% of the books I read were written by women (and that doesn't count those that were written by both men and women). But I had a hypothesis that this had changed over time- that I started off reading more books by men but now a large majority of the books I read are written by women. Time to test it out with a graph!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjG2GVK7ohwHOKPco-VWPJhWYD6vrTa7vDhXVhk_hM_MmV2hn6EbZQO7CgkKVDYtkjN24RGWHkPCSYF3RPQmEqkRKFpgBPNR8Sw1znIQiY1W_D9Y0xelKq2WUbTIEaVWojitxX69NvIbe0GuQhHTdzqJK-altrSxSQ-RsVmHpgZguk_IvSl2_mF" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="857" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjG2GVK7ohwHOKPco-VWPJhWYD6vrTa7vDhXVhk_hM_MmV2hn6EbZQO7CgkKVDYtkjN24RGWHkPCSYF3RPQmEqkRKFpgBPNR8Sw1znIQiY1W_D9Y0xelKq2WUbTIEaVWojitxX69NvIbe0GuQhHTdzqJK-altrSxSQ-RsVmHpgZguk_IvSl2_mF=w519-h355" width="519" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>And the graph shows that is broadly true (for reference, the 'other' category includes books written by a combination of genders, books were the authors gender is unknown, and non-binary authors). In 2003 61% of the books I read were written by men- and for the next 5 years it hovered around 50/50. In 2010 the proportion written by women started to climb, and many years after that it's hovered around 60% women (though there were a few 50/50 years in 2012, 2016 and 2017). The most gender-unbalanced year was 2019, with 89% women authors, and in 3 of the last 5 years the proportion written by women has been at or over 75%. <p></p><p>Why is this? I don't consciously attempt to read more books by women- I know they're overrepresented in my reading anyway. Partly I think I am more drawn to them, partly they're the books I'm hearing about, and partly I think it's the type of books I'm reading. I don't read a tonne of non-fiction, I've stopped reading as much epic fantasy, I often like cozy or domestic themes, I'm drawn to genre stories that are doing something a bit different to the norm.. and maybe those areas attract more women than men. Anyway that's my theory so far. But also I think it's probably affected by the number of long murder mystery series I read that are written by women. Which I realised by looking at...</p><p><b>my most read authors</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><br /></div>This is the top 10 authors with the highest number of books on my list.<p></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Kerry Greenwood - 25</li><li>Agatha Christie - 21</li><li>Diana Wynne Jones - 15</li><li>Elizabeth Peters - 14</li><li>(equal 4th) Terry Pratchett - 14</li><li>(equal 4th) Ben Aaronovitch - 14</li><li>(equal 4th) Dorothy Sayers - 14</li><li>Frances Brody - 11</li><li>P.G. Wodehouse - 10</li><li>(equal 10th) A.S. Byatt - 10</li></ol><div>And 5 of those 10 are women who write crime series- topped by Kerry Greenwood and her Phryne Fisher series, then Agatha Christie who needs no introduction from me. There's also a man who writes a fantasy/crime series (Ben Aaronovitch with his Rivers of London series). That's a lot of crime! But not that surprising since mystery series can run for a huge number of books. Agatha Christie wrote over 70 novels, so I'm really lagging behind with her. </div><div><br /></div><div>Incidentally, one of the things that I hoped to get out of this exercise was identifying which Agatha Christie books I had and hadn't read, so that I could pick up new ones instead of keeping on rereading them. Unfortunately I have lost all of 2009, when I could well have been reading Agatha Christie, and also started reading her as a teenager, before the lists existed. But 21 is a good start.</div><div><br /></div><div>One author on this list that is surprising is Terry Pratchett. Not because I didn't think I'd read many of his books- at one point I'd read all of them twice- but because that point in my life was before 2003. I didn't know he had that many books- I do know that I haven't read all of the later ones. So I'm not sure how, in between all that, I read 14 new books of his! A super prolific author. I'm also not sure how I managed to read 10 A.S. Byatt books, even though I actively sought out all her books after falling in love with Possession in late 2002/early 2003 (I'm not sure exactly- but it is on the list). I didn't love <i>The Children's Book</i> quite as much, but somehow in between those two I managed 10 of her books.</div><div><br /></div>Overall there are 635 (give or take) authors represented in my 20 years of reading. That means for every author I read, on average, 2.8 of their books (but a median of 1), or around 32 different authors a year.<div><br /></div><div>And that's it for my 20 year wrap up! Unless you have any burning questions for me to answer. It's been fun!<br /><br /><p></p></div>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-55387612157412726532024-01-10T22:30:00.004+11:002024-01-10T22:30:48.660+11:0020 years of reading- what books am I reading?Now for the interesting bits- what were the actual books that I read? What were they like? It's hard to summarise of course, but I'll do my best.<div><br /></div><div><b>Genre</b></div><div>Probably surprising no-one, 90% of the books I read were fiction. Or 89% if you exclude poetry. I wasn't sure which genre would end up top though- I was a big fantasy reader, read an increasing number of murder mysteries (though still love fantasy!) as well as literary fiction, and generally like to read a bunch of different things. I classified the books by genre- but some things fit in more than one category, so they're not mutually exclusive. And some things are hard to define! Genre boundaries are slippery. But this is what I came up with. Feel free to disagree with these categories.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZppsNNyz0S36U7HQeNYjKWRL_n-AHEyA04omQ_XDHE6gyOfN-SBX6_wbZuBxkDy_4ljS0GYmS0N_gyxJfYvtcg9kfl7BCxXoCCRGI48kIPmSrf_WkKGj4AougXSEvQ0ymoFCAohsnDpdwHAlxbVk1Ig80Qd1fFB8f2qf_MQaCAPG9eiqseAX6" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="1186" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZppsNNyz0S36U7HQeNYjKWRL_n-AHEyA04omQ_XDHE6gyOfN-SBX6_wbZuBxkDy_4ljS0GYmS0N_gyxJfYvtcg9kfl7BCxXoCCRGI48kIPmSrf_WkKGj4AougXSEvQ0ymoFCAohsnDpdwHAlxbVk1Ig80Qd1fFB8f2qf_MQaCAPG9eiqseAX6=w579-h336" width="579" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Literary fiction, Crime and Fantasy are practically tied at the top there, with literary fiction just ahead. Literary fiction is perhaps the hardest genre to define (it can get contentious!) but I'm interested that it came out on top. But overall these make sense to me. </div><div><br /></div><div>Then children's/YA and historical fiction, which is interesting. I am also unsurprised that I read so few horror books- I'm sure it only beat out poetry since I rarely sit down and read a whole book of poems.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also of the non-fiction I read, a third was auto/biographical. Honestly looking more closely, it was all autobiography or memoir. I think memoirs have a lot of really interesting variation- the memoirs on my list include cookbooks, comic books and <i>In the Dream House</i>- which alternates genres by chapter and includes a choose-you-own-adventure section.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Age</b></div><div>I wanted to know- how old are the books that I've been reading? Ideally, I'd like to read a variety of things from a variety of time periods. In practice, I feel like I am increasingly reading things that have come out quite recently and everyone is talking about (or at least that are positioned invitingly on the new release stands at libraries and bookshops).</div><div><br /></div><div>So how old is the oldest book I've read? At over a thousand years old, it's Sei Shonagan's <i>The Pillow Book </i>from c. 1000 AD. I really enjoyed this too! Rounding out the top three are <i>Njal's Saga </i>from 1280 and <i>Paradise Lost </i>from 1667. But I read those in 2011, 2003 and 2005. Am I right that I'm reading more recent books lately? Pretty much! Although maybe it's turning around a bit?</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUduo2Z69Y9qcsFhwjiz_-Cu0U-ThJfDJ8pzQxVme7HkSEL8hvaXioydBfghUvQkme3FD1BTte2j-o_bitaa0_wGHcsF0SEGf3sq0SojB1VTOVZnzBV3Vzma_R2D1qtUktxOKXi6mAKdNEKbk-XGqr3PqrsO-cz_bJHk1Eu11D-RKTyuRr5566" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="752" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhUduo2Z69Y9qcsFhwjiz_-Cu0U-ThJfDJ8pzQxVme7HkSEL8hvaXioydBfghUvQkme3FD1BTte2j-o_bitaa0_wGHcsF0SEGf3sq0SojB1VTOVZnzBV3Vzma_R2D1qtUktxOKXi6mAKdNEKbk-XGqr3PqrsO-cz_bJHk1Eu11D-RKTyuRr5566=w434-h261" width="434" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><br />I looked at the median age of the books that I was reading each year- it dipped down to an all-time low of 1 year in 2019, but it's come up a bit and has been 3 years in 2022 and 2023 (it even hit 4 years in 2020!). For some reason it hit a high of 31.5 in 2008, I think influenced by a whole bunch of Agatha Christie reads that year. I'd really like to vary things up a bit more- but I think a large part of the shift has been down to time and energy. It's often easier to grab a recent release- they're more readily available, sometimes older books can be more challenging language-wise (though really that depends on the books of course) and they are more visible when you're thinking of what to read. One big challenge I have is coming across earlier 20th century titles that sound intriguing- but are impossible to find in the library. Ah well, it will be interesting to see if this trend turns around in the next 20 years!</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Geography</b></div><div>Where do all these books come from? Well, a lot of them come from English speaking countries. Only 7% of all the books I read were read in translation, the rest were originally published in English. Looking at the nationality of the author, I did read books from 39 countries*. That's out of hundreds of countries in the world though, I'm sure I can do better! I haven't even read anything from Korea.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnnRaYHe-IZNew7D52xajJeUSAw_Gezbnu-EjZNR27rtcKwbTdP8hzvQ6Er0It8MhGXvWiZtOqnC0ezsg2P7wr7p4N5ad1rPTdfp5mMzB6C4mH7sI_Mr8mjWCzKgPVzhvuel6-_r9e8lRMX-YSwkMXbb_wX8PXdSnjRd-Qig4sXtnApTtWjR7k" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="497" data-original-width="845" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhnnRaYHe-IZNew7D52xajJeUSAw_Gezbnu-EjZNR27rtcKwbTdP8hzvQ6Er0It8MhGXvWiZtOqnC0ezsg2P7wr7p4N5ad1rPTdfp5mMzB6C4mH7sI_Mr8mjWCzKgPVzhvuel6-_r9e8lRMX-YSwkMXbb_wX8PXdSnjRd-Qig4sXtnApTtWjR7k=w470-h276" width="470" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Looking at the top most-read countries on the list, it's no surprise that the English speaking ones dominate. Over 40% of all those books are from the UK! Followed by the US, Australia, Canada and Ireland. Somehow France has snuck in ahead of New Zealand though. The rest of the list is: Japan, Italy, India, Mexico, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile,
Nigeria, Sweden, Colombia, Finland, Iran, Spain, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary,
Iceland, Indonesia, South Africa, Argentina, Austria, China, Denmark, Germany, Pakistan,
Peru, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. Plenty of places left to explore- please do recommend me a book from somewhere not on this list!<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>One more blog post left in this series I think- about the authors.</div><div><br /></div><div>*Though another data caveat- this is my categorisation. I decided to assign one country to each book- but this is not often reflective of an author's life. People are born in one place, move to others, hold dual citizenship and different identities in their lives. So my decisions are imperfect. Some examples- what about an author who was born in Ireland, moved to Australia as an adult and lives here now, but writes books set in Ireland? Or conversely if an author moved from the US to Ireland at university, lives in Ireland and writes books set it Ireland? (I classified both of these as 'Ireland'). Or a writer who was born and lives in the US, whose family background is Nigerian, travels frequently to Nigeria and sets their books in Nigeria? (I classified them as 'US'). So this is for my own interest but in no way definitive.</div>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-19338194373295646632024-01-07T23:31:00.035+11:002024-01-09T14:23:31.170+11:0020 years of reading- the numbers<p> I realised last year that I started keeping a record of the books I read way back in 2003- which means that 2023 marked 20 years of tracking my books! Also equalling my whole adult life. I started writing them down in the back of my year planner, then added them to my blog as well, and then moved from pen and paper to Librarything and then Goodreads. Sadly in the pen and paper era I managed to completely lose 2009, so now at the end of 2023 (technically now we are in the start of 2024 I know) I have 20 years worth of lists. I thought that I should mark the occasion somehow, and what better way than to put all those books into a spreadsheet and run some numbers? Maybe make a few graphs? Can't think of anything better!</p><p><b>The numbers</b></p><p>So this is the big question, I guess, how many books did I manage to read in 20 years? I think this needs a little introduction... So way back in 2003 I really wanted to keep track of which books I had read and hadn't read. But it seemed vain to me to count how many books I read in total. So I counted new books only. They had to be books read for the first time and read in full- all books finished in a year count, even if I started them the year before. I sort of regret this because I would love to see which books are my most re-read of all time (also, let's face it, I did want to know how many books I read in a year). </p><p>Back in 2003 I estimated I would read about 100 books a year. I had recently come to the existentially horrifying conclusion that there was no way I could read all the books in the world, or even all the books I might want to read, but 1,000 books a decade was enough to put a respectable dint in the TBR by the end of my lifetime. Imagine my horror when I had read less than 80 by the end of that first year.</p><p>But finally, at the end of 20 years I have hit over 1,000! 1,124 in fact. What does that look like by year? Here's where a graph is handy!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1x0vOjfDNIUyWWaZEdUQfRvLu7YZ1WBZQEIB1XWgFJNpS5kk5pXpLv2awPvV26jyKrOvKmMG6edvr4DApV_dKcgecwwFGsJEeITzQFOelCt2iFAtV2B23_uRoH4Aq_WYLrKRC_r6NqrvaI1bv_XZl5NLJDxnDuEXVGWd0Pu-s0HWV6tSyGSUv" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="817" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi1x0vOjfDNIUyWWaZEdUQfRvLu7YZ1WBZQEIB1XWgFJNpS5kk5pXpLv2awPvV26jyKrOvKmMG6edvr4DApV_dKcgecwwFGsJEeITzQFOelCt2iFAtV2B23_uRoH4Aq_WYLrKRC_r6NqrvaI1bv_XZl5NLJDxnDuEXVGWd0Pu-s0HWV6tSyGSUv=w387-h175" width="387" /></a></div><br /></div><br /></div></div><br /></div><p style="text-align: left;">My biggest reading year was 2013, with 88 books, and lowest number was read in 2016, with just 21, or an average of 56 books a year.</p><p style="text-align: left;">So far I have never hit 100 books in a year. But I've encountered readers who read several hundred in a year, as well as a Pew research study which found the average American reader read 12 books in a year (as reported in several places, including this <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2020/03/what-the-amount-of-books-you-read-a-month-says-about-you">Penguin blogpost</a>). There's so much variation! And so many things to read- keeping stats has made me think about what I count- I count graphic novels, but not comic books issues unless they're collected into a volume. And how would I count webcomics? So they're out. And not picture books. So many arbitrary decisions. And so many books I will never have time to read.</p><p style="text-align: left;">But what did I actually read in that time? Well, it's too long to list but I have some more stats for next time!</p><p></p>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-86725610552271287192024-01-03T23:44:00.000+11:002024-01-03T23:52:22.922+11:002023 Booklist<p>Happy new year to all! As is tradition, here's a round up of last year's reading. It's a pretty long list (for me) this year, 75 books, but the numbers feel a little arbitrary- this includes a couple of books I read to my kids, but not the super short ones, where is the cut off line anyway? And as always it doesn't include re-reads. I don't think I had many re-reads, apart from getting to read The Secret Garden, Ballet Shoes and The Borrowers to the kids. Excited for even more to come!</p><p><b>Shortest book</b> <i>Weasels in the Attic</i> by Hiroko Oyamada, a novel made up of a series of short and very strange vignettes about a man and his best friends, also their relationships and the main character's struggle to have a baby. But also aquariums, weasels, snow storms and soup. It's an unsettling book but also in a way mundane. <b>Longest book</b> <i>Stories from the Little Beach Street Bakery: An Omnibus Edition</i> by Jenny Colgan. A cozy romance comfort read that I enjoyed very much- a lighthouse! A tidal island! A beekeeper and a bakery and a pet puffin! But this feels a bit like cheating since it actually combines two books in one volume, so after this is <i>The Lincoln Highway </i>by Amor Towles (a mere 570 pages!). This was enjoyable but I wasn't a huge fan of the ending and it didn't live up to <i>A Gentleman in Moscow </i>for me.</p><p><b>Oldest book </b><i>The Three Cornered Hat</i> by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón y Ariza (1874). This is sort of a farce, apparently it was turned into a ballet and I guess it has the feel of a comic opera, lots of disguises and men trying to seduce other men's wives and general absurdity. Not sure this has aged well. <b>Newest book</b> is a close call! Overall I think <i>The Wake-Up Call </i>by Beth O'Leary wins, but at time of reading probably <i>The Last Devil to Die </i>by Richard Osman. Both published in September 2023. Both lots of fun- <i>The Wake Up Call </i> if you feel like a romance and <i>The Last Devil to Die </i>if you prefer a murder mystery.</p><p><b>Most books by one author</b> 6 books by Sulari Gentill- I was reading through her Rowland Sinclair mysteries. Set in Australia in the 1930s, these have a bit of a feel of Phryne Fisher, with an aristocratic hero along the lines of Peter Wimsey (but not as complex or as great of course), with a backdrop of growing fascist movements which lends a sense of unease. I enjoyed these but find them a bit frustrating in that the characters are more interested in dashing around adventurously than focusing on solving the mysteries in front of them, and also my library's eBook versions are very glitchy. Second place to Beth O'Leary- I read all 5 of her books this year. </p><p><b>Reading themes</b> A small but very specific theme- books where the main character calls on her family (with whom she has a complicated relationship) to help her dispose of a body following an accident. Comedy and relationship building ensues. This was just two books but I wasn't expecting it to crop up twice!</p><p>Comfort reading- I did quite a bit of this. Earlier in the year my father in law was dying, I wanted a comfort read but couldn't quite face murder mysteries in the moment. So I read a lot more romances than normal (I am not normally a big Romance reader). Hence the aforementioned Jenny Colgan, which was very comforting. Also Beth O'Leary- I've wanted to read <i>The Flatshare</i> for a while, it had an intriguing premise, and it really delivered. I think she does a good line in delivering on interesting premises (though I was a little underwhelmed by <i>The Road Trip</i>). Basically the experience is the same as watching a romcom, which I enjoy.</p><p><b>Favourite books</b> It's hard to choose, I'm doing this by genre this year. <b>Non-fiction </b>I read two more collections of essays by Kathleen Jamie this year, <i>Sightlines </i>and <i>Surfacing</i>. I love these a lot! She writes so beautifully, and has this wonderful quality of noticing and observing the world- there's quite a lovely part at the start of <i>Surfacing</i> where she reflects on ways of seeing while visiting a Yup'ik village in Alaska. Her essays are about nature and travel, and a lot of the essays in <i>Surfacing </i>are actually about archaeology. There's a great focus on details, but with a broad awareness of the wider world, a love of nature, an anger about the way we treat the environment, but an anger that is not disheartening, maybe? A concern for and interest in both humans and nature. I don't know how to express it but just read these instead and you'll get the idea.</p><p>Favourite<b> literary fiction </b>is the meta-fictional/thinly veiled biography/memoir <i>This Devastating Fever </i>by Sophie Cunningham. It's a book about a writer who is trying to write a biography of Leonard Woolf but struggling to deal with the man and his contradictions (and the looming and eventually literal spectre of Virginia Woolf), while also dealing with family issues and eventually the pandemic and general global chaos that is recent history. There are parallel narratives of Leonard Woolf and Alice (the modern day writer), and the many different ways that Leonard (and Virginia) appear in the novel are an intriguing way to deal with the contradictions and limitations of biographical writing. Honourable mention to another Australian book- <i>Limberlost </i>by Robbie Arnott, a really gentle, tense, and moving story centred on one boy's summer in Tasmania during WWII, but ranging all over his life.</p><p>Favourite <b>romance</b><i style="font-weight: bold;"> </i>goes to Beth O'Leary, I think it's a close tie between <i>The Switch </i>and <i>The Flatshare</i>. She writes a lot of books with dual narrators, and this works particularly well in these books- in <i>The Switch </i>a busy Londoner swaps flats with her grandmother for a holiday, and both of them commence fixing the lives of the people around them and finding love. In <i>The Flatshare </i>two people who have never met share the same flat (and bed- one has it at night, one in the day) and communicate through post-its and letters. </p><p>I did read a bunch of murder mysteries, even if I took a bit of a break, and my favourite <b>crime/murder mystery </b>was <i>Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers</i> by Jesse Q. Sutanto, which I have been going on to recommend to everyone. A little old lady sets out to solve a murder that has happened in her tea shop, gathering a bunch of suspects who she investigates but also comes to like. I started this year with Jesse Q. Sutanto's <i>Dial A for Aunties</i>, which was a silly and fun romp, but this one I found unexpectedly heartwarming. Maybe it's the comfort reader in me again, but I really liked this one. </p><p>And I feel like I didn't read as many <b>fantasy</b> novels as I could have, but my favourite was probably <i>Nettle and Bone </i>by T. Kingfisher. This was a satisfying fairytale quest, and I like T. Kingfisher's unassuming but determined heroines. I'm definitely planning to read a lot more of her books! I also wanted to mention <i>The Night Tiger </i>by Yangsze Choo, set in 1930s Malaya and sort of more magic realism than straight fantasy, but I enjoyed it a lot.</p><p>And now, the list!</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Dial A for
Aunties - Jesse Q. Sutanto<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Nettle & Bone
-<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>T. Kingfisher<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Ghosts - Dolly
Alderton<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Skydragon - Anh
Do<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">All Systems<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- Martha Wells<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Sudden Traveler -
Sarah Hall<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Wisteria
Society of Lady Scoundrels - India Holton<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Night Ship -
Jess Kidd<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Abaddon's Gate -
James S.A. Corey<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The three
cornered hat - Pedro Antonio de Alarcón y Ariza<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Amongst Our
Weapons - Ben Aaronovitch<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Wizard's Guide
to Defensive Baking - T. Kingfisher<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Where the Fruit
Falls - Karen Wyld<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Teen Couple Have
Fun Outdoors - Aravind Jayan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Closed and
Common Orbit - Becky<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chambers<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Bookshop on
the Shore - Jenny Colgan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Lessons in
Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">People Person -
Candice Carty-Williams<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Things to Do When
You're Goth in the Country: and Other Stories - Chavisa Woods<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Queen of the
Night - Alexander Chee<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Death in St.
Petersburg - Tasha Alexander<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Flatshare -
Beth O'Leary<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Without Further
Ado - Jessica Dettmann<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Stories from the
Little Beach Street Bakery: An Omnibus Edition - Jenny Colgan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Year of
Miracles: Recipes About Love + Grief + Growing Things - Ella Risbridger<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Visit from the
Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Love Marriage -
Monica Ali<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Either Side of
Midnight - Benjamin Stevenson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Surfacing -
Kathleen Jamie<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Unnecessary Drama
- Nina Kenwood<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Gods of Jade and
Shadow - Silvia Moreno-Garcia<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Opposite of
Always - Justin A. Reynolds<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Dinner with the
Schnabels - Toni Jordan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Lark - E.
Nesbit<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Switch - Beth
O'Leary<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">This is Going to
Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor - Adam Kay<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Troll Hunting:
Inside the World of Online Hate and its Human Fallout - Ginger Gorman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Flip Side -
James Bailey<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">This Devastating
Fever - Sophie Cunningham<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Vera Wong's
Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutanto<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Witch and the
Tsar - Olesya Salnikova Gilmore<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Weasels in the
Attic - Hiroko Oyamada<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Perfect Crime
- Vaseem Khan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">We Are Legion (We
Are Bob) - Dennis E. Taylor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Sightlines -
Kathleen Jamie<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Eyes Like Mine -
Sheena Kamal<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Love & Virtue
- Diana Reid<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Fine Art of
Uncanny Prediction - Robert Goddard<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Few Right
Thinking Men - Sulari Gentill<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Great Alone -
Kristin Hannah<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Decline in
Prophets - Sulari Gentill<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Romantic Comedy -
Curtis Sittenfeld<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Heart That
Works - Rob Delaney<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Miles Off Course
- Sulari Gentill<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Still Life -
Sarah Winman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Glass Houses -
Anne Coombs<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Searcher -
Tana French<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Last Devil to
Die - Richard Osman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Limberlost -
Robbie Arnott<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Lincoln
Highway - Amor Towles<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Paving the New
Road - Sulari Gentill<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">An Astronomer in
Love - Antoine Laurain<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Tea Ladies -
Amanda<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hampson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Murder at the
Museum - Alasdair Beckett-King<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Signal to Noise -
Silvia Moreno-Garcia<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The No-Show -
Beth O'Leary<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">All's Well - Mona
Awad<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Gentlemen
Formerly Dressed - Sulari Gentill<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Night Tiger -
Yangsze Choo<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">A Murder
Unmentioned - Sulari Gentill<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Wake-Up Call
- Beth O'Leary<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">The Road Trip -
Beth O'Leary<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">Eliza Vanda's
Button Box - Emily Rodda<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">What You Are
Looking For Is in the Library - Michiko Aoyama<o:p></o:p></p><br /></div><p></p>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-67496207451661839562023-01-01T09:51:00.003+11:002023-01-01T10:10:17.828+11:002022 Booklist<p>In summary, I read 72 books in 2022- the highest number since 2014. I have officially reached pre-child reading levels. I feel that must mean I've been neglecting other aspects of my life. But oh well, because what a lot of good books I've gotten to read! </p><p><b>Longest book</b> <i>All Clear</i> by Connie Willis. I love her time travel books and read her duology set in WWII in England, <i>Blackout </i>and <i>All Clear</i>, this year. She does write pretty chunky books! Great if you love immersive and detailed historical settings, but can mess with the pacing. She maintains the tension throughout the whole 800 pages of <i>All Clear</i> (and <i>Blackout </i>as well), though. <b>Shortest book</b> <i>Every Heart a Doorway</i> by Seanan McGuire is a brief novella based on a school for children who have been to fairytale worlds and then returned, and have to cope with the real world. A fascinating concept, and I've been wanting to read it for a while, though in the end I had mixed feelings about it. It's a strange book that does interesting things with a great idea though, so worth a read.</p><p><b>Oldest book</b> <i>Counterfeit</i> by Sonia Cole, from 1955 (I think). This is a book I picked up from a library cull a few years back, and finally got around to reading. It's non-fiction and looks at fakes and counterfeits throughout history, with an archaeological/art history/paleontological perspective. I liked the idea but the treatment is a little brief, more a collection of anecdotes than a book at times. It's also the most obscure book I read this year, not even appearing in Goodreads. <b>Newest book</b> Hard to pick but at time of writing (vs time of reading) it would have to be <i>Golden Enclaves </i>by Naomi Novik, published late in September. I was so keen to get my hands on this- the last book in the Scholomance series about a somewhat malign magic school- and it delivered!</p><p><b>Most books by one author </b>Frances Brody wins here with 11- because I read almost all of her Kate Shackleton series over the course of the year. Set in the 1920s in Leeds, it's a modern attempt at Golden Age murder mysteries. I really enjoy it, it strikes a good balance for me and doesn't feel too anachronistic, engages with social and political issues of the time and has a likeable heroine. </p><p><b>Reading themes: </b>After resolving to read more mysteries at the end of last year, I really knocked it out of the park- more than a third of the books I read were mysteries of some variety. As well as the Kate Shackleton series I read Dervla McTiernan's Cormac Reilly series, after seeing it recommended somewhere as a comp for Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad books (and after seeing them everywhere for the last couple of years). I think that's a good recommendation, it's a fairly dark, tense series set in Ireland among police. Less supernatural hints and more police corruption. I enjoyed these. Then there were Richard Osman's latest Thursday Murder Club series, with their octogenarian crime solvers- these are always very fun. A middle grade mystery and a YA series, both set in boarding schools (<i>Friday Barnes</i> and the <i>Truly Devious </i>series). </p><p>I ended up reading a bunch of books about the pandemic this year- more of these seem to be coming out lately, but some have been around for a surprisingly long time. <i>Summer </i>by Ali Smith, the last in her seasonal quartet, <i>The Fell </i>by Sarah Moss, one of my favourite contemporary authors, <i>The Sentence </i>by Louise Erdrich and <i>The Sea of Tranquility </i>by Emily St John Mandel. All of these were really good in different ways, though I am increasingly feeling that Ali Smith is not for me. I loved the idea of the seasonal quartet and the experimentation of it, but I found it a bit patchy. I love Sarah Moss at her best, but I was a little disappointed by <i>Ghost Wall </i>and took a while to get around to her similar length novellas, <i>Summerwater </i>and <i>The Fell</i>. But these are really good, both inhabiting a number of perspectives around a single moment. In <i>The Fell </i>we see a single mother who breaks quarantine to go for a walk alone during the height of the pandemic. I think it captures a lot of the tensions and the vibe of the time really well. Louise Erdrich was a new to me author this year who I really enjoyed- the two books I read of hers were very different but both good. <i>The Sentence</i> is about a year in the life of a formerly incarcerated indigenous bookshop employee in the US, who is being haunted by the ghost of a former customer. That year happens to be 2020, and the book takes in the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, as well as the personal life of its main character. I found it strangely paced at times- but in a way that is kind of true to the experience of living through 2020- as though it was written very close to the events and changed to reflect them as they went along. But my favourite would have to be <i>Sea of Tranquility </i>by Emily St John Mandel, it feels raw but adds a few hundred years more of human history to place the pandemic in perspective. A sci-fi version of our current reality, with some time travel thrown in (also a theme in my 2022 reading). I really loved this. If you're feeling like reflecting on the times we're living in, any or all of these 4 would be a decent place to start.</p><p>A small theme early in the year- books about dictionaries. I finally read two quite hyped books: <i>The Dictionary of Lost Words </i>by Pip Williams and <i>The Yield </i>by Tara June Winch. <i>The Dictionary of Lost Words </i>is about the daughter of one of the compilers of the OED, and the 'words' she purloins as they work, and also about the place of women and their invisibility in history, and <i>The Yield </i>is about an indigenous woman returning from overseas to deal with the death of her beloved grandfather and his legacy, which includes a Wiradjuri/English dictionary, as well as the complicated family/place history. I felt overall that <i>The Yield </i>did a lot more with the dictionary concept, the way it worked the Wiradjuri dictionary into the text, the story reflected the words, and the words told the story was very well done. It's also a very moving story. I was a bit disappointed in <i>The Dictionary of Lost Words, </i>which ended up feeling like a very straightforward historical fiction. Although a good story too. If you have to read one book featuring a dictionary this year I would go with <i>The Yield.</i></p><p>This post is getting really long and I haven't even gotten to<b> favourite books</b> yet! I'll try to keep it snappy. <i>Sea of Tranquility</i>, as I've already mentioned, was amazing, maybe my top book of the year? I really enjoyed <i>Golden Enclaves</i>, I thought it was a very satisfying end to a great fantasy YA trilogy. Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Louise Erdrich are both authors that I really enjoyed discovering this year, after hearing about for quite a while. I read two books by each of them and they both demonstrated a lot of range in those two books, so I'm keen to read more. <i>Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line </i>by Deepa Anappara deserves a mention- this told a really dark and upsetting story with amazing freshness and panache, through inhabiting its child characters so well. It's really stayed with me. I knew going in that it was a dark story but I thought it was fantasy so be warned it's not fantastical. It has stayed with me though and I think more people should read it! Shout out to <i>The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue </i>by V.E. Schwab, which I thought was really original. Also I couldn't put it down. I knew going in that it had a great premise- a character who is cursed to live forever but never to be remembered- but it lived up to its premise in spades. A pleasant surprise for me because I didn't love Schwab's <i>Shades of London </i>series. Also honourable mention to <i>Black Water Sister </i>by Zen Cho- a really good urban fantasy. And the last book I read this year, <i>Ducks </i>by Kate Beaton, is an amazing graphic memoir of a fairly bleak time in her life, working in the Oil Sands in Alberta, Canada, with a lot of complexity and nuance.</p><p>There were a few books that I read that were disappointing- top of the list to <i>Six Wakes </i>by Mur Lafferty. It was well reviewed on the <i>Get Booked </i>podcast, but I found the writing style to be pretty awful. Interesting premise and fast-paced, but the characters and writing were just very poor. Some other books were patchy or mediocre but I'll leave them alone and leave you with my full list of books read for the first time in 2022! For the first time I've incorporated books read to the kids, where I've read the whole thing rather than swapping with Andrew, and for chapter books only (or I the list would be swamped with picture books!). Really this just adds up to the <i>Mabel Jones </i>series by Will Mabbitt, which we really enjoyed.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Saga Land- Richard Fidler, Kari Gislason<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Anxious People- Fredrik Backman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Blackout- Connie Willis<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets- Eva Rice<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Light of the Midnight Stars- Rena Rossner<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">All Clear- Connie Willis<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Friday Barnes: Girl Detective- R.A. Spratt<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Dictionary of Lost Words- Pip Williams<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Every Heart a Doorway- Seanan McGuire<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Truly Devious- Maureen Johnson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Vanishing Stair- Maureen Johnson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Hand on the Wall- Maureen Johnson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Girl on the Train- Paula Hawkins<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Yield- Tara June Winch<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Love and Other Puzzles- Kimberley Allsop<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet- Becky Chambers<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The True Queen- Zen Cho<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Man who Died Twice- Richard Osman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Everyone Brave is Forgiven- Chris Cleave<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Six Wakes- Mur Lafferty<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I Think of You: Stories- Ahdaf Soueif<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Dying in the Wool- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Elizabeth is Missing- Emma Healey<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Velvet was the Night- Silvia Moreno-Garcia<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Summer- Ali Smith<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A Medal for Murder- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fleishman is in Trouble- Taffy Brodesser-Akner<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Night Watchman- Louise Erdrich<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Murder in the Afternoon- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death of an Avid Reader- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mexican Gothic- Silvia Moreno-Garcia<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A Woman Unknown- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Murder on a Summer's Day- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Love Stories- Trent Dalton<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A Death in the Dales- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Sentence- Louise Erdrich<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death at the Seaside- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Akata Woman- Nnedi Okorofor<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death in the Stars- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue- V.E. Schwab<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A Snapshot of Murder- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Growing Yourself Up: How to Bring Your Best to All of Life's
Relationships- Jenny Brown<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Ruin- Dervla McTiernan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">She is Haunted- Paige Clark<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Body on the Train- Frances Brody<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Scholar- Dervla McTiernan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Summerwater- Sarah Moss<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Fell- Sarah Moss<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Good Turn- Dervla McTiernan<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mabel Jones and the Doomsday Book- WIll Mabbitt<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Vanishing Half- Brit Bennett<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sea of Tranquility- Emily St. John Mandel<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Unlikely Adventures of Mabel Jones- WIll Mabbitt<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Time and Time Again- Ben Elton<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Counterfeit- Sonia Cole<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A Burning- Megha Majumdar<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Golden Enclaves- Naomi Novik<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Calypso- David Sedaris<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo- Taylor Jenkins Reid<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Bullet That Missed- Richard Osman<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Royal Holiday- Jasmine Guillory<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Such a Fun Age- Kiley Reid<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line- Deepa Anappara<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Younger Wife- Sally Hepworth<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Black Water Sister- Zen Cho<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Mabel Jones and the Forbidden City- Will Mabbitt<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Let the Great World Spin- Colum McCann<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death Wears a Mask- Ashley Weaver<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The October Man- Ben Aaronovitch<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow- Gabrielle Zevin<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Death on the Trans-Siberian Express- C.J. Farrington<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands- Kate Beaton<o:p></o:p></p>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-66503566552826449222021-12-31T14:25:00.003+11:002021-12-31T14:25:22.494+11:00booklist 2021<p> Well, once again that was a year. But the worse the years get, the more books I read, so here's what I read in 2021. 56 new books all up, almost back to pre-kid reading levels! </p><p><b>Longest book </b><i>Caliban's War</i> by James A. Corey part of an epic sci-fi series ('The Expanse' series). My friend recommended these and ended up buying me the first one so that I would read it- they are a lot of fun! And occasionally irritating. But mostly very fun. <b>Shortest book </b><i>And Still I Rise</i> by Maya Angelou. Ironically I think this took me longer to read- I'm pretty sure I started it in 2020. But it's a poetry collection so I dipped in and out. I'm glad to have read it. Iconic.</p><p><b>Oldest Book</b> this is also <i>And Still I Rise</i> by Maya Angelou (1978). I read mostly pretty recent books this year. <b>Newest book </b>I think this goes to <i>The Last Graduate</i> by Naomi Novik, September 2021. The cliffhangers in this series are intense, it's a must read as soon as it comes out!</p><p><b>Reading themes</b> I went through a big YA phase at some point in the year- when we were in lockdown and I ran out of physical books and the YA titles were the ones that kept jumping out at me on the library app. eBooks from the library are a real godsend in the middle of a pandemic. So I read <i>Girls in Boys Cars</i>, <i>The True Colour of a Little White Lie </i>and <i>Loner </i>pretty much one after another. And those are just the Australian ones! Looking back, there are plenty of YA novels scattered all through this year. But my favourite Australian YA novel of the year I read earlier on, <i>Can't Say it Went to Plan </i>by Gabrielle Tozer. It follows three different characters on schoolies, dealing with friendship and relationships and what they're doing with their lives and who they want to be. I saw it on social media and it lived up to exactly what I wanted from it- these are kids dealing with a range of different things but there's a sense of joy and optimism which feels just right. </p><p><b>Reading resolutions </b>I didn't read that much mystery this year, and I kind of want to get into some more murder mysteries next year. Of those that I did read, <i>The Thursday Murder Club </i>by Richard Osman was the most fun. The Expanse series also whet my appetite for more sci-fi- I have my eye on Becky Chambers' books and <i>Six Wakes </i>by Mur Lafferty. And of course the third of Naomi Novik's Scholomance books is a must when it comes out.</p><p>Last year I resolved to read more books in translation, but I'd call that one a failure since I only read one in 2021- <i>The President's Hat</i>.</p><p>Alright, without further ado, the full list of books read for the first time in 2021. Asterisk next to my favourites:</p><p>Ha'penny - Jo Walton Suspenseful alternative history with Nazis</p><p>Death in Daylesford - Kerry Greenwood Phryne Fisher mysteries are always fun</p><p>The Midnight Library - Matt Haig </p><p>Jack - Marilynne Robinson</p><p>The Bookshop of Yesterdays - Amy Meyerson</p><p>This Has Been Absolutely Lovely - Jessica Dettman</p><p>*All Our Shimmering Skies - Trent Dalton</p><p>The Masked City - Genevieve Cogman Such a fun and frantic series about a multidimensional universe kept in balance by an invisible library and its skilled librarian operatives. With elves and dragons.</p><p>Stormsong - C.L. Polk</p><p>The Sacred Combe - Thomas Maloney Lovely and meditative book about a mysterious place also with a significant library, but I felt the ending let it down</p><p>The Museum of Words: A Memoir of Language, Writing and Mortality - Georgia Blain</p><p>In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado Experimental memoir of domestic violence</p><p>Circe - Madeleine Miller</p><p>Jacakaby - William Ritter</p><p>And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou</p><p>Cold Earth - Sarah Moss A thriller involving a remote archaeological dig, a global pandemic and a possible haunting</p><p>Eleanor and Park - Rainbow Rowell YA romance</p><p>Beastly Bones - William Ritter</p><p>Giant Days vol. 13 - John Allison My favourite comic writer. Giant Days is a series about a group of friends at uni in the UK and a lot of weirdness</p><p>Giant Days vol. 14 - John Allison</p><p>The Burning Page - Genevieve Cogman</p><p>Thorn - Intasar Khanani A retelling of the goose girl fairytale</p><p>How to Fake Being Tidy: And other things my mother never taught me - Fenella Souter A collection of essays about domesticity and other things</p><p>Song of the Crocodile - Nardi Simpson</p><p>Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow - Jessica Townsend</p><p>Children of the Revolution - Peter Robinson </p><p>* Can't Say it Went to Plan - Gabrielle Tozer</p><p>* Weather - Jenny Offill A novel in vignettes about a librarian dealing with her family, climate change, general angst. A summary which doesn't do it justice- I loved this.</p><p>The Upside of Unrequited - Becky Albertalli</p><p>All Our Hidden Gifts - Caroline O'Donoghue YA fantasy with tarot cards, creeping dread, lots of queer themes. This was dark and good.</p><p>*Notes to Self: Essays - Emilie Pine A brutally honest set of personal essays about hte authors life, but also about the various challenges women face in the world</p><p>A Curious Beginning - Deanna Raybourn Fun historical adventure romance set in Victorian England</p><p>The President's Hat - Antoine Laurain A light French novel following president Mitterand's hat, and how it changes the lives of the people who encounter it</p><p>A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn</p><p>*The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel I wasn't super keen on reading a novel about the GFC, but Emily St John Mandel is great and so is this</p><p>The Octopus and I - Erin Hortle</p><p>*Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason This is one of those books that it felt like everyone was reading this year- but it deserved it. A woman's life, relationships, experience of mental illness- all with a does of humour. And sadness, as the name suggests.</p><p>The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions - Kerry Greenwood Collection of Phryne Fisher short stories. Honestly not 100% sure whether I'd read these or not,.</p><p>Murder with the Lot - Sue Williams A bored fish and chips shop owner gets involved in trying to get to the bottom of something fishy happening on the rental property she's managing.</p><p>*Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton</p><p>Nimona - Noelle Stevenson</p><p>Leviathan Wakes - James A. Corey</p><p>The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathan Fairfax - Christopher Shevlin This was a lot of fun. Our perpetually astonished hero falls into the middle of some dastardly goings on. Hijinks ensue.</p><p>Caliban's War - James A. Corey</p><p>*<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4308768342?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1">Reading the Seasons: Books Holding Life and Friendship together</a> - Germaine Leece and Sonya Tsakalakis A collection of letters between two bibliotherapists. Link to Goodreads review.</p><p>*The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik</p><p>Girls in Boys Cars - Felicity Castagna </p><p>The True Colour of a Little White Lie - Gabriel Bergmoser</p><p>Loner - Georgina Young</p><p>The Queer Principles of Kit Webb - Cat Sebastien Historical romance with a highwayman</p><p>*Queenie - Candice Carty-Williams </p><p>Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz</p><p>*The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman</p><p>*Solutions and Other Problems - Allie Brosh This made me laugh so much. Even though it is also devastating. Allie Brosh writes and draws about life like no-one else.</p><p>Akata Warrior - Nnedi Okorafor</p><p>Snow White - Matt Phelan A graphic novel retelling of Snow White set in New York in the roaring twenties.</p>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-7628357868452612112021-12-31T13:12:00.000+11:002021-12-31T13:12:51.351+11:00booklist 2020<p>Well it's good to be finished with 2020 isn't it? I read a lot more again in 2020 (42 books)- it was a good year to get lost in a good book. On top of these new books, I also reread the Harriet Vane and Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy Sayers, for comfort reading.</p><p><b>Shortest book </b>Little Witch Academia (176 pages) vs <b>Longest Book</b> The Mirror and the Light (883 pages).</p><p><b>Oldest book </b>if I counted rereads it would be Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers (1930), other The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia McKillip (1976), while the<b> newest book</b> is close to a tie between A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and Piranesi by Susanna Clark, both published in September 2020.</p><p><b>Reading themes </b></p><p>In the middle of the year I read a couple of non-fiction books which I roughly categorised as about 'the North'- Names for the Sea by Sarah Moss (a British writer writing about Iceland) and Findings by Kathleen Jamie (a Scottish writer writing largely about Scotland). Other than that I found myself reading a lot of fantasy about parallel universes toward the end of the year. Coincidence? Escapism? Anyway they were all good in their own ways and many of them explicitly about the appeal of parallel universes. They included This is How you Lose the Time War, The Invisible Library, The Ten thousand Doors of January and Piranesi. The Starless Sea, which I read earlier this year, could almost fit there too. I also read a couple of books about witch schools- Akata Witch, A Deadly Education and Little Witch Academia.</p><p><br /></p><p>So here is the full list for 2020! I've tried to rank them roughly, they are in rough categories, but I find it really hard to choose one book over another! Most of the books I read were really good, so don't take any of the categories too negatively. Anyway, starting at the bottom, here are the books I read in 2020:</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Least favourite/disappointing </b></p><p>The Childhood of Jesus - J.M. Coetzee</p><p>Of all the books I read this year, this may be the only one I actively disliked. I do not think Coetzee is for me. It's an allegory, sure, but of what? and why? And how does it relate to Jesus? I really do not feel compelled to read the other books in the series to find out.</p><p>The Book of Hidden Wonders - Polly Crosby</p><p>It's not the fault of this book so much as the cover I think, and the blurb. It made me expect something quite different and that's a surefire way to not get along with a book. The book itself is not bad, there are good moments but there were also plenty of moments where I felt I had read it all before (*potential spoiler warning* in books like Behind the Scenes at the Museum and We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves). It's a kind of coming of age story of a child with an unconventional, neglected childhood and her difficulties in making sense of her world and her situation. The alternative title is 'The Illustrated Child'- I think that suits is better.</p><p>The Fairies Return, or New Tales for Old - Peter Llewellyn Davies</p><p>This is not bad either, but a very mixed bunch. A collection of fairy tales *modernised* in the 1930s by various authors and edited by the man who inspired Peter Pan, some of these are very dated now but some are still compelling.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Not bad</b></p><p>The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling - Wai Chim</p><p>This is a YA tale of love, family, mental illness, race and of course dumplings. Set between Sydney and the Central Coast, this has many wonderful ingredients and I wanted to love it, but I just liked it. Maybe it just took on too much? Or maybe I am too far past my days of being a young adult? Overall I liked it but I thought some of the themes opened up a lot more issues than could really be covered in the book. </p><p>If Cats Disappeared from the World - Genki Kawamura</p><p>This story of a man making the pact with the devil to give himself extra days of life, and his relationship with his cat who suddenly starts talking, was fun but quite slight.</p><p>Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce - Colm Toibin</p><p>There were a lot of interesting tidbits in here about Irish literary figures, and the Irish literary scene of the 19th century, but I'm not sure that it quite came together for me.</p><p>The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries - Otto Penzler</p><p>This lived up to its name- it's a big book! Full of short mysteries. On the whole I liked it but as with any collection like this it's a mixed bunch.</p><p>Raven Black - Ann Cleeves</p><p>The first book in the 'Shetland' series, when I was in the mood for reading more about the North. I thought maybe it felt a bit generic as far as murder mysteries go, but I did enjoy it and plan to go back for the next in the series. I liked the characters.</p><p>The Ultimate Christmas Cracker - John Julius Norwich</p><p>This is pretty charming, it's a collection of quotations and texts that the compiler found interesting and brought together to share with his friends (and now the wider reading public). The inclusion of large chunks of untranslated Latin and French is very English public school...</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Good</b></p><p>False Value - Ben Aaronovitch</p><p>I like this whole series- I'm a sucker for a good urban fantasy set in London, and I like the 'magic police' conceit. This was not the best of them (when you get to book 8 I feel it's hard to maintain momentum) but it's still good. The Rivers of London is a whole juggernaut now, with the books, spin off books, novellas, graphic novels and the potential TV show (still in production, will see if it materialises). I'm not sure if I can keep up!</p><p>The Name of the Star - Maureen Johnson</p><p>YA urban fantasy set in London featuring magic police, for something a little different. It appears that the ghost of Jack the Ripper has returned, and it's up to a school girl and a small team of police with the ability to see and disperse ghosts to try to stop him.</p><p>The Madness Underneath - Maureen Johnson</p><p>Book 2 of the Shades of London, there is more ghost trouble, this time linked to the site of the old Bedlam hospital.</p><p>The Shadow Cabinet - Maureen Johnson</p><p>The stakes are upped in the final book in the trilogy, with a powerful cult and a trip to the underworld involved.</p><p>Drama - Raina Telgemeier</p><p>This is a cute graphic novel about the trials of middle school crushes, friendship and drama productions.</p><p>Little Witch Academia, vol. 1 - Yoh Yoshinari</p><p>Another graphic novel, one of my 'witch school' books from this year. Akko is the only student from a non-witch background to attend a prestigious witch school, and what she lacks in magical ability she makes up in enthusiasm. Although I only read volume 1, I've been watching the anime series on Netflix and I really like it- very charming.</p><p>Aunty Lee's Delights - Ovidia Yu</p><p>A widow and hard working Singaporean cook starts solving mysteries when someone who ate at her restaurant shows up dead. I think these books are really charming, even though there's a bit of repetition and the plot doesn't always seem to hang together perfectly. That should be a major flaw in a whodunnit but I really like the characters, particularly Aunty Lee who is a Miss Marple style 'harmless busybody' who is actually very clever. The relationship between the characters and the workings of society are also really interesting, and mysteries with food are always fun.</p><p>Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials - Ovidia Yu</p><p>Exit West - Mohsin Hamid</p><p><br /></p><p>Before the Coffee Gets Cold - Toshikazu Kawaguchi</p><p>With the Fire on High - Elizabeth Acevedo</p><p>The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman</p><p>Witchmark - C.L. Polk</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Great</b></p><p>Farthing - Jo Walton</p><p>The Ten Thousand Doors of January - Alix E. Harrow</p><p>Akata Witch - Nnedi Okorafor</p><p>Too Much Lip - Melissa Lucashenko</p><p>The Weekend - Charlotte Wood</p><p>There Was Still Love - Favel Parrett</p><p>The City We Became - N.K. Jemisin</p><p>Utopia Avenue - David Mitchell</p><p>Spring - Ali Smith</p><p>This Is How You Lose the Time War - Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Favourites</b></p><p>*Names for the Sea - Sarah Moss</p><p>*The Riddle-Master of Hed - Patricia McKilllip</p><p>*Heir of Sea and Fire - Patricia McKilllip</p><p>*Harpist in the Wind - Patricia McKilllip</p><p>*A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik</p><p>*Piranesi - Susanna Clarke </p><p>*The Starless Sea - Erin Morgenstern</p><p>*Set Me On Fire: A Poem For Every Feeling - Ella Risbridger</p><p>*Findings - Kathleen Jamie</p><p>*The Mirror and the Light - Hillary Mantel</p>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-21142042983092383792021-01-01T14:20:00.001+11:002021-01-01T14:20:26.812+11:00booklist 2019Happy new year one and all! Time to look back over the reading year that was 2019.<br />
<br />
This was the highest number of new books read of any year since I had my first baby, so that seems like a positive thing! 36 books- not huge but I did feel like I had some time to read this year.<br />
<br />
So what was 2019 like? Let's break it down:<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Longest book</b>- Lethal White by Robert Galbraith vs <b>shortest book</b>- Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell. Shortest book wins here- it was a charming and pithy essay extolling the virtues of children's literature. Lethal White was the latest installment in a detective series that seems to be losing its way, or rather the author has different opinions on where it should go than I do.<br />
<br />
<b>Reading themes</b><br />
I feel like a large part of the year was dominated by Dodie Smith. It started when I read 'Guard Your Daughters' by Diana Tutton, a book which I'd seen compared to 'I Capture the Castle' and widely recommended. It didn't disappoint, I really loved this story of an eccentric family of sisters and their precarious relationship with their mother. Inspired by this I reread 'I Capture the Castle' and all of Dodie Smith's memoirs. These are great, Dodie Smith is such a definite character with an interesting life, from her Edwardian childhood in Manchester to life on the stage in London to her time in America and her relationship with Hollywood. There are ebbs and flows in the narrative, but overall I really liked these. Be prepared for lots of talk about her clothes and houses if you plan to read them, and hardly any mention of 101 Dalmations (though she talks a lot about her own dalmatians). <div><br /></div><div>A few fairytale inspired books (Spinning Silver, Uprooted, Gingerbread and The Hazel Wood) as well.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Favourites</b></div><div>As usual I have marked my favourites with an asterisk, but this year the stand-out favourite was Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. A beautiful fairy tale retelling which looks at antisemitism, female power and the power of negotiation and just a very satisfying fantasy book. Loved it and it inspired me to seek out Naomi Novik's other books.</div><div><br /></div><div>The full list:<br />
<br />
Happy All the Time - Laurie Colwin<br />
Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos - Lucy Knisley<br />
Transcription - Kate Atkinson<br />
Wundersmith - Jessica Townsend<br />
Cedar Valley - Holly Throsby<br />
*Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik<br />
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - Stuart Turton<br />
Uprooted - Naomi Novik<br />
Winter - Ali Smith<br />
The Wych Elm - Tana French<br />
Lethal White - Robert Galbraith<br />
And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready - Meaghan O'Connell<br />
The Place on Dalhousie - Melina Marchetta<br />
Sorcerer to the Crown - Zen Cho<br />
If I Fall, If I Die - Michael Christie<br />
Cat Among the Pigeons - Agatha Christie<br />
Just One Damned Thing After Another - Jodi Taylor<br />
The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa<br />
Swing Time - Zadie Smith<br />
Lies Sleeping - Ben Aaronovitch<br />
Gingerbread - Helen Oyeyemi<br />
*Guard Your Daughters - Diana Tutton<br />
Big Sky - Kate Atkinson<br />
*Look Back With Love - Dodie Smith<br />
*Look Back With Mixed Feelings - Dodie Smith<br />
When Dimple Met Rishi - Sandhya Menon<br />
The Lifeboat - Zacharey Jane<br />
The Wedding Date - Jasmine Guillory<br />
The Proposal - Jasmine Guillory<br />
*Look Back With Astonishment - Dodie Smith<br />
Friday Black - Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah<br />
Look Back With Gratitude - Dodie Smith<br />
The Dead Queens Club - Hannah Capin<br />
The Corset - Laura Purcell<br />
*The Hazel Wood - Melissa Albert<br />
Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise - Katherine Rundell<br />
<br />
<br /></div>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-73835364241761187542019-01-01T23:18:00.001+11:002019-01-01T23:18:59.829+11:00booklist 2018<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Here it is- the full list of books finished for the first time in 2018, with favourites starred:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Mirror Sydney: An Atlas of Reflections by Vanessa Berry</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Hollow City by Ransom Riggs</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O'Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Goose by Dawn O'Porter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Autumn by Ali Smith</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York by Luc Sante</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A Rare Book of Cunning Device by Ben Aaronovitch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Shepherd's Hut by Tim Winton</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Nevermoor: The Tales of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Snotgirl Vol. 1: Green Hair, Don't Care by Bryan Lee O'Malley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Doomsday Book by Connie Willis</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Cactus by Sarah Haywood</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Bossypants by Tina Fey</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This Water: Five Tales by Beverly Farmer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*How to be Second Best by Jessica Dettmann</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">*Any Ordinary Day: What Happens after the Worst Day of Your Life? by Leigh Sales</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think having children has put a long-lasting dent in the number of books I can read in a year. But looking back I see that most of the books I read this year were good onese. I know that I went through several reading lulls, where I had nothing on the go, but then would pick something up and be completely immersed. Like everyone else I read <i>Lincoln in the Bardo</i> and <i>Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine</i>, and enjoyed them. I was a bit behind the hype on <i>Bossypants </i>but very much liked it too. Possibly my hyped read of the year was <i>My Name is Lucy Barton </i>by Elizabeth Strout. This was just beautiful, with a great mix of sadness and hopefulness that just seems particularly truthful. I am very keen to read <i>Anything is Possible </i>now.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I think all my non-fiction reads were good ones, though in very different ways. I love Vanessa Berry's writing about the forgotten and overlooked corners of Sydney, and <i>Mirror Sydney </i>is a beautiful book to boot. Perfect for me as I love Sydney, history and a good wander. <i>Low Life </i>was another book about a city- but focusing on the underworld of turn of the century New York. It's a fascinating read, though it did seem to get a bit bogged down in a roll-call of gangsters in the middle there. I read <i>The Midwife </i>after binge watching <i>Call the Midwife</i> and it didn't disappoint- though a lot of the stories are lifted straight across. My final book of the year was Leigh Sales' <i>Any Ordinary Day</i>, which looks at how people react to sudden tragedy. In one way it was nothing startling- people tend to catastrophise, they look for meaning in disaster, people don't always react well, etc. But the specifics of what that looks like and what it means, the insight into various people and how they have dealt with disaster, and the general call to empathy made this a rewarding book.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Not as many graphic novels this year, and neither of them particularly exciting. <i>Awkward </i>was nice but not great, and <i>Snotgirl </i>was very disappointing, I actively disliked it. But I should mention my favourite comic of the year, <i>Giant Days</i>. It's not on the list because I've been reading it mostly issue by issue and am not sure how to list it, but it's my favourite comic series (by John Allison, whose comics I've been enjoying for many years) so I wanted to mention it in some way. Also eBook versions of comics are great for reading while feeding a newborn in the middle of the night.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The title of most disappointing book of the year probably has to go to <i>This Water: Five Tales </i>by Beverly Farmer. It was so promising, being a collection of fairy tale inspired short stories by a prominent female Australian author (who I hadn't really heard of before, but nevertheless). But it was a real slog to get through these- this might be one of those wrong reader at the wrong time things, but the writing is very slow, very descriptive and somewhat distancing. The first story is long and rambling- it's more of an impressionistic picture of an old woman's life than a story with an actual narrative thread, and the hints at connections to the legend of the selkie didn't seem to come to anything. Some of the other stories were more traditionally fairytale-esque, but the characters felt distant, the stylistic repeating of phrases felt, well, repetitive and I didn't engage. The last tale- a Bluebeard(?) type story set in an ice palace was well done, and there was also an interesting take on Clytemnestra, but overall this was not my cup of tea.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And finally, my favourite books of the year would be <i>To Say Nothing of the Dog </i>and <i>Doomsday Book </i>by Connie Willis. Two time travel stories set in the same universe, with time-travelling historians dealing with all the dilemmas of time travel, along with academic bureaucracyy and an irritable costume department. Its future Oxford is a well realised world, and a delight to visit, but I really love that these two books are so clearly part of a series and yet so different in tone. <i>Doomsday Book </i>involves travelling back to the Medieval era and is tense, slow paced and in the end quite sad. But <i>To Say Nothing of the Dog </i>(my favourite) is a Victorian comedy, in the best British comic traditions (though the author is American). It's also a romance. Anyway, the race for favourite book is close this year but I really enjoyed these.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Some more honourable mentions: <i>Nevermoor</i> (a really enjoyable YA fantasy, I'm excited to read the next in the series), <i>Incendiaries </i>(a super timely and quite confronting, pacy and thought-provoking read) and <i>How to Be Second Best </i>(I guess this is chick-lit? It's by a blogger whose writing I've always liked. Funny and human, and about parenting as well).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Looking forward to reading everyone's reading round-ups for the year!</span><br />
<br />Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-41283851415278247692018-12-31T23:27:00.000+11:002018-12-31T23:27:29.375+11:00Belated 2017 BooklistA very late write up of a year that I can see contained a lot of graphic novels/comics, some fantasy and only two non-fiction books (<i>A Burglar's Guide to the City</i> and <i>The Book that Made Me</i>).<br />
From a year or so on, the ones that I think were my favourites are <i>The Tidal Zone</i> by Sarah Moss and <i>A Gentleman in Moscow</i> by Amor Towles.<br />
<br />
I loved Sarah Moss' <i>Night Waking </i>a few years ago and <i>The Tidal Zone </i>has many of the elements that I enjoyed- a somewhat wry narrative voice, an interest in the way we relate to the past from the present and the inclusion of history, as well as some interesting family dynamics. <i>The Tidal Zone</i> deals with the way people reconstruct life after a catastrophe, in the reconstruction of Coventry Cathedral and the recovery of the protagonist's daughter from a sudden collapse.<br />
<br />
<i>A Gentleman in Moscow </i>is a fairly gentle and charming book about a member of the Russian aristocracy who gets stuck living in a fancy hotel at the advent of the revolution. Something of a comfort read, one that I liked very much.<br />
<br />
Like everyone else I loved <i>A Brilliant Friend</i>, but I still haven't read the sequels. I found Toni Morrison's <i>Jazz</i> a bit disappointing- I think it's one of those things where it was the wrong book for my mood, and I struggled with the repetition and circling structure. I read the <i>Crazy Rich Asians</i> books because of the hype and loved them- some fun escapism.<br />
<br />
So as per tradition, all books finished for the first time in 2017:<br />
<br />
Berlin, Vol. 1: City of Stones by Jason Lutes<br />
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab<br />
A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab<br />
A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab<br />
Running by Cara Hoffman<br />
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Anders<br />
Archie Vol 1: The New Riverdale by Mark Waid<br />
The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John<br />
Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra<br />
Saga Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan<br />
To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey<br />
Rivers of London: Body Work by Ben Aaronovitch<br />
Rivers of London: Night Witch by Ben Aaronovitch<br />
The Trespasser by Tana French<br />
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor<br />
Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley<br />
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline<br />
The Book That Made Me by Judith Ridge (ed)<br />
The Good People by Hannah Kent<br />
The Rook by Daniel O'Malley<br />
A Burglar's Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh<br />
Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd<br />
Jazz by Toni Morrison<br />
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante<br />
The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan<br />
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles<br />
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss<br />
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan<br />
China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan<br />
Carry On by Rainbow Rowell<br />
Shadowshaper by Dani<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">el José </span>Older<br />
<br />Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-85738975482305903492017-01-16T19:53:00.001+11:002017-01-16T19:53:47.204+11:00booklist 2016<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It turns out that having a baby had a very large impact on my reading (and I didn't even manage to write up my annual booklist for 2015 until now!). Apparently I read 63 books in 2015, and 21 in 2016. As someone who thinks of herself as a reader, it was a disorienting year, and one in which I went for large periods of time without even a book on the go. I think not commuting was maybe as big a factor as the actual baby. Whatever the case, 2016 was a lean year for books, and one in which murder mysteries and graphic novels are strongly represented. It wasn't even a strong year in terms of the books themselves, but there were good ones as always.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Snow by Orhan Pamuk was probably my favourite, it was refreshing to get stuck into it and be reminded of the power of books. It was also transporting and an interesting insight into Turkey and its religious tensions. Although I have to say that maybe three quarters of the way in it started to drag a bit, and lose some direction to my mind. It didn't fully recover by the end, but was still worth finishing and was definitely thought-provoking with some engaging characters.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillop was also very good. She writes this sort of oblique fantasy, for want of a better word, I mean it is straighforwardly fantasy but her stories and their plots alsways feel kind of sideways. It feels refreshing though, and the worlds are beautiful. This story of a kingdom and its shadow world was one of my best reads of the year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lucy Knisley's graphic memoirs are always a fun read, very reflective, very Gen Y I think but I like that (it's my generation after all). I wanted to read her book about getting married recently and her reflections on her relationship and wedding traditions, so first I ended up reading her books about travelling and youth and family, which were also good. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Goodwood was a book I picked up on impulse at the library after feeling like I'd seen it around a lot, and it was actually a great choice. It's an Australian mystery/coming of age story set in a small country town, and I think she pulled it off really well. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See as well, although I always feel like there can't be any good WWII books left to write. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Robert Galbraith mysteries and Ben Aaronovitch fantasy police procedurals are always good fun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So there you have it, I complained about this year but there were a lot of good books after all! Here's the full list:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Career of Evil- Robert Galbraith</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ombria in Shadow- Patricia A. McKillip</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And other adventures in parenting- Mei-Ling Hopgood</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sweet Danger- Margery Allingham</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Slade House- David Mitchell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Simple Act of Reading- Debra Adelaide (ed.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Deep Secret- Diana Wynne Jones</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Stoner- John Williams</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Roadside Picnic- Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All the Light We Cannot See- Anthony Doerr</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Displacement: A Travelogue- Lucy Knisley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An Age of License: A Travelogue- Lucy Knisley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Case of the Gilded Fly- Edmund Crispin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Dead in their Vaulted Arches- Alan Bradley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust- Alan Bradley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sea Lovers: Selected stories- Valerie Martin</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Snow- Orhan Pamuk</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Something New: Tales from a makeshift bride- Lucy Knisley</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Shepherd's Crown- Terry Pratchett</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Goodwood- Holly Throsby</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Hanging Tree- Ben Aaronovitch</span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-58531751084702038132017-01-15T14:19:00.000+11:002017-01-15T14:19:00.801+11:00very belated booklist for 2015The Bookshop Book- Jen Campbell<br />
Lila- Marilynne Robinson<br />
The Wise Man's Fear- Patrick Rothfuss<br />
The Sleeper and the Spindle- Neil Gaiman<br />
The Strange Library- Haruki Murakami<br />
Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand<br />
The Hare with the Amber Eyes- Edmund de Waal<br />
The Age of Magic- Ben Okri<br />
Unmade- Sarah Rees Brennan<br />
Station Eleven- Emily St John Mandel<br />
The Girl who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making- Catherynne M. Valente<br />
Still Alice- Lisa Genova<br />
Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo- Ntozake Shange<br />
The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam- Ann Marie Fleming<br />
A Month in the Country- J.L. Carr<br />
Lagoon- Nnedi Okorafor<br />
Connecting with Law- Michelle Sanson<br />
On Histories and Stories: Selected Essays- AS Byatt<br />
The Girl Who Was Saturday Night- Heather O'Neill<br />
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There- Catherynne M. Valente<br />
Lucky Us- Amy Bloom<br />
At Home: A Short History of Private Life- Bill Bryson<br />
The Ape Who Guards the Balance- Elizabeth Peters<br />
Some Kind of Fairytale- Graham Joyce<br />
The Grand Duchess of Nowhere- Laurie Graham<br />
Fledgling- Octavia Butler<br />
The Falcon at the Portal- Elizabeth Peters<br />
Ragtime- E.L. Doctorow<br />
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves- Karen Joy Fowler<br />
Shortcomings- Adrian Tomine<br />
Oranges are not the Only Fruit- Jeanette Winterson<br />
A Fairly Honourable Defeat- Iris Murdoch<br />
Shy: A Memoir- Sian Prior<br />
The Crossing Places- Elly Griffiths<br />
A Girl's Guide To Modern European Philosophy- Charlotte Grieg<br />
Who Fears Death- Nnedi Okorafor<br />
Damsels in Distress- Joan Hess<br />
Moondogs- Alexander Yates<br />
He Shall Thunder in the Sky- Elizabeth Peters<br />
The L-Shaped Room- Lynne Reid Banks<br />
The Three-Body Problem- Cixin Liu<br />
A God in Ruins- Kate Atkinson<br />
Lord of the Silent- Elizabeth Peters<br />
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom is Wrong and What You Really Need to Know- Emily Oster<br />
Heat and Light- Ellen van Neerven<br />
Some Luck- Jane Smiley<br />
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic- Alison Bechdel<br />
Children of the Days: A Calendar of Human History- Eduardo Galeano<br />
Cairo- Willow G. Wilson<br />
Reluctantly Charmed- Ellie O'Neil<br />
Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction- Craig Edward (ed)<br />
Alif the Unseen- Willow G. Wilson<br />
Looking for Alaska- John Green<br />
The Wife Drought- Annabel Crabb<br />
The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books (and two not-so-great ones) changed my life- Andy Miller<br />
The Golden One- Elizabeth Peters<br />
Early Warning- Jane Smiley<br />
Foxglove Summer- Ben Aaronovitch<br />
Eustace- S.J. Harris<br />
American Gods- Neil Gaiman<br />
Sidney Chambers and the Perils of Night- James Runcie<br />
My Real Children- Jo Walton<br />
Shades of Milk and Honey- Mary Robinette KowalCatiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-8767783319323903562014-12-31T16:45:00.002+11:002014-12-31T16:45:47.236+11:00book list 2014<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Just because my blog has been pretty quiet this year doesn't mean you won't get my annual list of books finished for the first time this year! All 78 of them. This year I think I read more non-fiction than usual (and later I might check the stats to see if that's true). There was an interesting selection, with everything from deciphering Linear B, the history of the crossword, pop music in the 20th century, memoirs of people who fled Nazi Germany and books about Sydney (personal and historical). The other theme is really recent books- so many books I read this year seem to have been written in 2013 or 2014. I think I might try to balance that with some older books next year. Other than that, my top picks of the year:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which I <a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/americanah-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html">reviewed in detail earlier,</a> but suffice to say it was one of the first books I read this year and still a favourite. In short: it's a great book about the way the world is today, and race and gender and globalisation and all that stuff that is pretty crucial to who we are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton which I <a href="http://womenontheshelf.com/2014/04/18/the-luminaries-by-eleanor-catton/">reviewed on another blog</a> was just a beautifully structured and written story. It sucks you in with wanting to know what happened, and then it makes you feel it. Really well worth reading.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Fantasy</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Zoo City by Lauren Beukes. One of the last books I read this year, and a really terrific one. I'm really loving urban fantasy at the moment, and this is a great example of the genre. Set in a run-down urban suburb of Johannesburg, with a noir feel and magical animals, it was exciting and sad and unputdownable. Highly recommend.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Crime</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's so hard to pick just one- the Robert Galbraith books surprised me a bit by being really good. They have some fun characters and it's nice to see a traditional private eye in a modern setting, somehow that seems rare? But it would be remiss of me not to mention the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, which I've started reading my way through. Following a female Egyptologist in the late 19th century, who seems to get herself and her family involved in a large number of mysteries that need to be solved, these are just a lot of fun. A bit silly maybe, but definitely fun.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And the full list (linked if I've written about it, short review included for some)...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Glass God<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Kate
Griffin <i>I love all Kate Griffin's London urban fantasy books, and this is no exception</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Riddle of the
Labyrinth- Margalit
Fox <i>Fascinating account of the decoding of Minoan writing</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Murder and Mendelssohn- Kerry
Greenwood <i>Can't go wrong with a Phryne Fisher, and this one is a bit of a return to form after some less good ones</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/americanah-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Americanah- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The One Hundred Year
Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared-<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jonas
Jonasson</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Cluetopia- David
Astle <i>A book about the crossword and its history by noted crossword maker DA</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Paths of Glory- Jeffrey
Archer <i>Bought it as sort of a lucky dip, dragged in places- about the climbing of Everest</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Travesties- Tom
Stoppard</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The View from Castle
Rock- Alice
Munro</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Untold- Sarah
Rees Brennan <i>Really enjoy this fantasy series</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://womenontheshelf.com/2014/04/18/the-luminaries-by-eleanor-catton/"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Luminaries- Eleanor Catton</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/book-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Broken Homes- Ben Aaronovitch</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Enchanted April- Elizabeth
von Armin <i>I think Stuck in a Book reviewed this highly- and it is a lovely story about women who holiday in Italy and are deeply affected by it</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Presumption of Death- Jill
Paton Walsh <i>A continuation of Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey books</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Attenbury Emeralds<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Jill
Paton Walsh</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/book-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Late Scholar- Jill Paton Walsh</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Mysterious Flame
of Queen Loanna- Umberto
Eco</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Salvage- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Keren
David</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Old School<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Tobias
Wolff</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/book-haul.html">The Man Within- Graham Greene </a><i>Not Graham Greene's best I think, but apparently his earliest</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Imperfectionists- Tom
Rachman</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Crocodile on the
Sandbank<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Curse of the
Pharaohs- Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Drowner<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Robert
Drewe <i>Good to read some Australian fiction- I thought this was a bit overwrought in places, perhaps, but overall interesting</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">All the Birds, Singing- Evie
Wyld</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Faulks on Fiction- Sebastian
Faulks <i>A book of essays on British fiction that I found myself wildly disagreeing with a lot</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/library-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Cuckoo's Calling- Robert Galbraith</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Jackdaws- Ken
Follett <i>Another lucky dip book! About a team of British women sent into occupied France as saboteurs in WWII</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/library-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Curtain of Green- Eudora Welty</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/library-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Child that Books Built- Francis Spufford</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Magic Toyshop- Angela
Carter <i>Read for book group. I love Angela Carter but she can be hard, this has all the pain and fairytale magic and darkness you might expect</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Mummy Case<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/library-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Lion in the Valley- Elizabeth Peters</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/library-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Mr Fox- Helen Oyeyemi</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/library-haul.html"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Orkney- Amy Sackville</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Skios- Michael
Frayn <i>Recovering from some dark reading with something funny, but this also turned out to be a bit dark, or at least somewhat pessimistic about humanity</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Goldfinch- Donna
Tartt <i>Read for book group. Enjoyed it, but felt it dragged in the middle.</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Deeds of the
Disturber- Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Unnatural Causes- PD
James</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Trafficking in Old
Books- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Anthony
Marshall <i>A collection of columns that makes for a charming memoir of second-hand bookselling in Melbourne</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Bluebeard's Egg- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Margaret
Atwood</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Silkworm- Robert
Galbraith</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Diary of Mary Berg- Mary
Berg <i>A diary of a young Jewish girl in the Warsaw ghetto in WWII</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Last Camel Died at
Noon<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Not Meeting Mr Right- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Anita
Heiss <i>A bit bland for chick-lit I thought- but would still be interested in reading more by her</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Sittaford Mystery-Agatha
Christie</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Love and Vertigo- Hsu-Ming
Teo</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The World of Yesterday- Stefan
Zweig</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Murder on the Eiffel
Tower<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Claude
Izner</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Visitors<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Sally
Beauman <i>Picked this up because the surname was the same as the book I was looking for. Fitted right in with my Egyptology at the turn of the century reading</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Glow- Ned
Beauman <i>Really recommend this one- very compelling thriller involving drugs, seperatist groups, evil corporations and non-24 sleep syndrome. And good writing</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Snake, The
Crocodile and the Dog<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Yeah, Yeah, Yeah: The
Story of Modern Pop<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Bob
Stanley <i>To add to my knowledge of pop music after my blog obsession (talked about <a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/number-ones.html">here)</a></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Questions of Travel<i>- </i>Michelle
de Kretser <i>Controversial book group book- I thought it was fine, most hated it</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Bone Clocks- David
Mitchell <i>I love David Mitchell, and this is perhaps the most David-Mitchell book yet</i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">On Such a Full Sea<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Chang-Rae
Lee</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Razorhurst-<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Justine
Larbalestier</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">That Deadman Dance<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Kim
Scott <i>Well worth reading- Indigenous writer writing about European settlement and first contact in Western Australia </i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Colourless Tsukuru
Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage- Haruki
Murakami</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Secret Place- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Tana
French</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Anita
Loos</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Hippopotamus Pool<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Amsterdam-<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ian
McEwan</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Thin Man<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Dashiell
Hammett</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Betty
Smith</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Tale for the Time
Being- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Ruth
Ozeki</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Seeing a Large Cat- Elizabeth
Peters</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Persepolis 2: The
Story of a Return- Marjane
Satrapi</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Seconds- Bryan
Lee O'Malley</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Rynnosseros- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Terry
Dowling</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Girl Defective<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Simmone
Howell</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Girl who Saved the
King of Sweden<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">- </span>Jonas
Jonasson</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Beacon- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Susan
Hill</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Strawberry Hills
Forever- Vanessa
Berry</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">It's Not You,
Geography, It's Me- Kristy
Chambers</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Zoo City- <span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Lauren
Beukes</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Name of the Wind- Patrick
Rothfuss</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Leviathan- John
Birmingham</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Happy New Year! </span></span></div>
Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-54638917020577515152014-10-01T22:58:00.002+10:002014-10-01T22:59:00.006+10:00absences<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No blog post at all for August is a pretty poor effort (and now September as well! eek!) but I have a good excuse, honest! I was away on holidays for a couple of weeks, and between planning and packing and traveling and unpacking I've been kept pretty busy. So what did I do on my holidays you ask?</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UMomTCXAYzCiCImViFyQ-bXFS0_cChEyHUmLzbZNJj5xF-phHIyzXdyq_77cumsBB2RN-DzflNQS4O142UOWlWjBI1ChZPRavq6fswR_BueDfbavEEJmSN7-j77XoHBrYPVG/s1600/2014-08-27+19.02.38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UMomTCXAYzCiCImViFyQ-bXFS0_cChEyHUmLzbZNJj5xF-phHIyzXdyq_77cumsBB2RN-DzflNQS4O142UOWlWjBI1ChZPRavq6fswR_BueDfbavEEJmSN7-j77XoHBrYPVG/s1600/2014-08-27+19.02.38.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">View from the Empire State Building</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, I travelled to North America for the first time, and I got to see New York, Vancouver and Whistler (as well as a friend who I rarely get to see- which was a treat). I stayed in New York with a couple of friends from uni, and met up with my school friend in Canada (where she now lives).</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyP5VMcjXCWMB_mrlT62DkgyTgEdfL-HWvaY3sTy8Xx2EuYj7C67cRmYyBboWH_tG-IRl8kPuQyzIxz5jg0xyFGQc4gYyj3xbmhRg1qCNs1ri6wAY5HmYxf-wmult9_O8kDq8o/s1600/2014-09-03+13.55.03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyP5VMcjXCWMB_mrlT62DkgyTgEdfL-HWvaY3sTy8Xx2EuYj7C67cRmYyBboWH_tG-IRl8kPuQyzIxz5jg0xyFGQc4gYyj3xbmhRg1qCNs1ri6wAY5HmYxf-wmult9_O8kDq8o/s1600/2014-09-03+13.55.03.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">On a mountain in Whistler</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">It's a bit hard to sum up travel quickly, as I've discovered anew after getting back and trying to answer the inevitable question: "how was your trip?" It was great, New York was very big, Canada had lots of mountains, you know the deal. And in any case I feel like I've shared so many photos on social media that no-one really wants to hear any more about it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">But for my blog which is mostly about books, I thought I would write a bit mostly about New York but partly about books. We went to bookshops (<a href="http://www.strandbooks.com/">Strand Books</a> was amazing!) and libraries, and saw books for sale in museum bookshops (the wonderful <a href="http://www.tenement.org/">Tenement Museum</a> had a lovely selection- and has made me want to read <i>A Tree Grows in Brooklyn</i>), but beyond that, it seemed that W.H. Auden was following me around.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxhAgXA5Y2VqAWApxAtsp5esFjfdLsMbAFaejgXUHRBbJgq9c8oVX7StEw71CGipVka7NjYTn7-XIOzuJRtaerPNdWQhoUTsrLsR22kcsOdzzv7SxVQej1g5fh9GPJHOvjBo7/s1600/2014-08-29+11.43.26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlxhAgXA5Y2VqAWApxAtsp5esFjfdLsMbAFaejgXUHRBbJgq9c8oVX7StEw71CGipVka7NjYTn7-XIOzuJRtaerPNdWQhoUTsrLsR22kcsOdzzv7SxVQej1g5fh9GPJHOvjBo7/s1600/2014-08-29+11.43.26.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">WH Auden's (very temporary) house</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I love Auden, but I was not expecting to stumble across him on our Lonely Planet walk guided walk through Brooklyn, which led us past a house which proclaimed "W.H. Auden (POET 1907-1973) lived in Brooklyn Heights from 1939 to 1940". It's a brief stay, really, that's now immortalised, but was it this house he returned to after <a href="http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/september-1-1939">September 1, 1939</a>? Apparently he wrote 'New Year Letter' there, but it's not one that I've read. Which is a pity, because I don't think Auden's read enough. My friends don't seem to know him. Not even '<a href="http://www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/poetry/aude.html">Funeral Blues</a>', famous for appearing in <i>Four Weddings and a Funeral, </i>nor 'Death's Echo' which is one of my favourites (it is bleak but also beautiful). I recommend them all! But when I tried to explain what Auden wrote the lines that kept running around <span style="font-size: small;">my head (though always jumbled) were the first lines from '<a href="http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/lullaby-0">Lullaby</a>':</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lay your sleeping head, my love,</span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Human on my faithless arm;</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
They tumbled round my head until we visited the Morgan Library (a beautiful private library from the early 20th century- built for JP Morgan) and there among the rare books on display was WH Auden again. A hand corrected copy of his first printing of his first book of poems. Just a couple of traces of Auden to stumble across, but ones that made me happy.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnTTZOFX_QY9AyTc3rKBC-p6f-Og91apkKGGJEDFHHrTKegm5fRn0C_Z9Gbukd5uYo6q_Y38LYKll0yk_grsIR4iQzepN5KS1FrSP66yEbIUoyPRV7ltAk0DLNyaysDmrfMl6/s1600/2014-08-31+12.27.59.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidnTTZOFX_QY9AyTc3rKBC-p6f-Og91apkKGGJEDFHHrTKegm5fRn0C_Z9Gbukd5uYo6q_Y38LYKll0yk_grsIR4iQzepN5KS1FrSP66yEbIUoyPRV7ltAk0DLNyaysDmrfMl6/s1600/2014-08-31+12.27.59.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Auden in the Morgan library</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And I can't finish this post on my trip without a photo of the fabulous Metropolitan Museum of Art. Happy travels!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNw9z5Pv6Th7uKJ7oLFo9Yc1EnfL63Z1kg8HZV7xJEHE5XhW044lrmlfodSaQ48UzQmIJQRvRSsX8Z-CVE-OiBq-QsB4FZPt1mgHtS_zoqLyH8ZleaVhGQB3YNk-BC55UCNhdy/s1600/2014-08-27+12.09.05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNw9z5Pv6Th7uKJ7oLFo9Yc1EnfL63Z1kg8HZV7xJEHE5XhW044lrmlfodSaQ48UzQmIJQRvRSsX8Z-CVE-OiBq-QsB4FZPt1mgHtS_zoqLyH8ZleaVhGQB3YNk-BC55UCNhdy/s1600/2014-08-27+12.09.05.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Just a temple taken from Egypt to America</span></td></tr>
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<br />Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-82635117939700009992014-07-17T15:21:00.002+10:002014-07-17T15:21:45.104+10:00number ones<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've been on a bit of a kick lately of reading about pop music and number one singles. I've been finding it fascinating, so I'm sharing some links here here on the off-chance that you do, too. Down the internet rabbit-hole we go...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It all started a few years ago when I stumbled across a <a href="http://www.thevine.com.au/number-one/">music column</a> in <a href="http://www.thevine.com.au/">The Vine</a> by Tim Byron, reviewing the latest Australian number one single. Usually, the column looks at what makes a song so popular- what are it's hooks? Themes? Cultural context? And what makes the song- it's influences and so on. Tim Byron is a music writer but also apparently a psychology lecturer, and he often seems to have interesting things to say about the singles, and treats them with a certain respect. Which is one of the reasons why I was so interested when he mentioned his new podcast...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/90-percent-hits-podcast/id629516358?mt=2">90 percent hits</a> is a podcast (and blog- their <a href="http://90percenthits.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> is well worth checking out) about all the number one singles in Australia in the 1990s (the period that my generation looks on with particular nostalgia). It's made by Tim Byron, Casey Atkins, Tim Coyle and Danny Yau. They talk about the songs, and also their personal reaction to them/memories of them. I must admit I still haven't finished the podcast, but it's definitely hit 1999. The podcast (and the column) reference some other blogs that inspired them...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like <a href="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/category/popular/">Popular</a> by Tom Ewing, which reviews all the UK number one singles (see the chronological list/archive <a href="http://freakytrigger.co.uk/populist/">here</a>). The reviews start in 1952, and as I write this go all the way to 1998 (I'm only at 1967). The posts tend to be pretty short, always including a score out of 10, but the commenters are often pretty well informed and have interesting tidbits to add. This blog seems to be the one that inspired them all (it started in 2003!) including...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://nohardchords.wordpress.com/">No Hard Chords</a>, a blog by Sally O'Rourke looking at all the US number one singles from the Billboard Hot 100. I really like the writing in this blog, it gives some nice background to the hits. It's covered 1958-1967 so far, but the last post was written over a month ago so I'm a bit worried there may be no more, still the one before that was written in January, so there's still hope! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Last is the one I haven't really gotten to yet (maybe because it would take a bit longer!) is <a href="http://nobilliards.blogspot.com.au/">Then Play Long</a>, which reviews every UK number 1 ALBUM (by Marcello Carlin and Lena Friesen). I've only read the entry on U2's <a href="http://nobilliards.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/u2-unforgettable-fire.html">The Unforgettable Fire</a>, which was linked from a round-up of music writing in The Vine (another Tim Byron column), but that was a great mix of personal essay and music writing, so I would be interested to read more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've still got a lot of blog reading to do, clearly, but this has inspired me to read up on my pop music history- any good book recommendations?</span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-56718446152164604232014-06-30T22:17:00.002+10:002014-06-30T22:26:17.279+10:00today's post brought to you by the letter...<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Simon posted a fun meme over at <a href="http://stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/todays-post-is-brought-to-you-by-letter.html#comment-form">Stuck-in-a-book </a>the other day- he assigns a random letter and you have to pick some of your favourites that start with that letter. And my letter is N! Let's do this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">number9dream - David Mitchell</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://bks2.books.google.com.au/books?id=Hbg4AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE724ZWhVBiUl3d8VouTigVAwJF2amgMGsdBblEnssoD2YP_-yLWxBRt1L1l546zKubthEohPIHbwiAmO__lhS1JGebd27Wp1QVC_-5SQQrCyqpbrTZF4zPyjAm3RJAGtLnQLcKVH" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://bks2.books.google.com.au/books?id=Hbg4AgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&imgtk=AFLRE724ZWhVBiUl3d8VouTigVAwJF2amgMGsdBblEnssoD2YP_-yLWxBRt1L1l546zKubthEohPIHbwiAmO__lhS1JGebd27Wp1QVC_-5SQQrCyqpbrTZF4zPyjAm3RJAGtLnQLcKVH" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Image from Google Books</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This book made me really fall in love with the writing of David Mitchell- and still my favourite. Although Cloud Atlas is also amazing! And I can't believe it but it took me a while to think of it...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">E. Nesbit</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Nesbit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Nesbit.jpg" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I grew up with <i>Five Children and It</i>, <i>The Phoenix and the Carpet </i>and so on, but most of all with <i>The Railway Children. </i>My siblings and I read the book, and watched the movie, multiple times. E. Nesbit will always have a special place in my heart!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">No Light, No Light - Florence and the Machine</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Because I love Florence and the Machine! Though I have to say it was a toss up between this and No Aphrodisiac by The Whitlams. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm going to cheat and say Star Wars: A New Hope, one of my all-time favourites.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/35/96798866_ae896d9b29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/35/96798866_ae896d9b29.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Image used under a CC2.0 license by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/">Stewf</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Nightstand! If I didn't have one, where would I store my books?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, N ended up being harder than I thought! But lots of fun. </span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-91023581771867300082014-05-08T22:49:00.001+10:002014-05-08T22:49:41.697+10:00library haul<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Just stopped in to return some books to the library the other day, and ended up taking an armful home with me- I couldn't resist posting about them. I've added to the haul with a book from the library where I work (is it excessive being a member of 2 libraries? I don't even care). So here's what I've got lined up:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Cuckoo's Calling - Robert Galbraith</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Well, if I'm honest I've read this one already. I didn't blog straight away and it was just too good not too finish. Though I had no real desire to read J.K. Rowling's first book after <i>Harry Potter, The Casual Vacancy,</i> I'd heard good things about her pseudonymous foray into fiction. I really loved the set-up to this book- I feel like there aren't enough private detectives in modern mysteries and Cormoran Strike is a good one, complete with personal demons and dingy office. I also loved his secretary, Robin, and I think these characters really made the book. Though for some reason I found myself hoping that romantic tension didn't develop between them. Anyway, parts of the solution were maybe slightly lacking, but it was a good journey there with plenty of clues to follow along. Looking forward to the sequel!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>A Curtain of Green - Eudora Welty</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The one I'm currently reading. A collection of short stories from this famous Southern writer. I haven't read anything by her, but I've heard her name around a lot so I thought it was time to fix that. Apparently this is Welty's first short story collection, published in 1941, so I suppose it's a good place to start. I'm finding it a strange book so far.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Orkney - Amy Sackville</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I just have this thing for books set in remote Scottish islands, and I feel a special interest in the Orkneys since visiting there a couple of years ago (or since before visiting really, that's why I chose to go there at all). I'll just include a gratuitous holiday photo, why not. Anyway based on that alone I picked this up, and the blurb also sounded somewhat familiar- it's the story of a professor and his former student who have come to the Orkney Islands for their honeymoon and "alone beneath the shifting skies of this untethered landscape, the professor realises how little he knows about his new bride." There is also a definite suggestion of selkies or mermaids, which just adds to the intrigue. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEGGYBc-qAH-YXX4zcLl0HDUzYIX13fIV_mStyZ3zsnYQ8mCKnJb_8bbMg_FK1O6OAWm8dhjEv9U3xTOXmoNTImBHiAJeSyx81twBbwIbzZJeEjg4rPBxbRNZ2Y-29eF0othhG/s1600/581079_10150879291646937_1674871153_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEGGYBc-qAH-YXX4zcLl0HDUzYIX13fIV_mStyZ3zsnYQ8mCKnJb_8bbMg_FK1O6OAWm8dhjEv9U3xTOXmoNTImBHiAJeSyx81twBbwIbzZJeEjg4rPBxbRNZ2Y-29eF0othhG/s1600/581079_10150879291646937_1674871153_n.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Approaching the Orkney Islands by ferry</span></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br /></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Mr Fox - Helen Oyeyemi</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I read <i>The Opposite House</i> a while ago, and found it fascinating but uncomfortable. I think it was well written but it was a bit of a hard read. So I am approaching this optimistically but with caution, in case it bites. Lovely cover, though, and I knew I'd heard something intriguing about it. Googling it just know to jog my memory I see it's inspired by/a retelling of Bluebeard, so I suppose it was the fairytale connection. And foxes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Lion in the Valley - Elizabeth Peters</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">What's not to like about a series of murder mysteries whose protagonist is an Egyptian archaeologist in the 19th century? I started reading the Amelia Peabody series a little while ago and they are a lot of silly fun. Unfortunately this is the fourth in the series, and I've only read the first two, so I will need to hunt down the third one first I suppose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Child that Books Built - Francis Spufford</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This was recommended to me by a colleague, it's the only non-fiction book in the bunch and it's a book about children's literature and being a child who grew up reading. At least, that's the impression that I get. The blurb tells me it's about the author going back and rereading childhood favourite books and reflecting on them, and that sounds like a great premise right there. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anyway, that's such a bounty of reading coming up, I'm reinspired (I was feeling a bit of a reading slump for a while there). If anyone is still reading this blog, I'd love to hear what you've got lined up to read next, or any recommendations for future reading?</span><br />
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Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-46190261051416145232014-04-22T15:18:00.003+10:002014-04-22T15:19:26.355+10:00writing elsewhere<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So this blog has been a bit neglected lately, much as I try to at least update it monthly, BUT this time I've written something elsewhere on the Internet. It's for Kate's blog <a href="http://womenontheshelf.com/">Women on the Shelf</a>, which is a blog about books written by women. There are a whole lot of different things by different contributors, and I've written a review of <a href="http://womenontheshelf.com/2014/04/18/the-luminaries-by-eleanor-catton/">Luminaries by Eleanor Catton</a>. Spoiler: I loved it.</span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-19855300958731843042014-02-25T22:25:00.001+11:002014-02-25T22:25:18.197+11:00americanah - chimamanda ngozi adichie<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've been meaning to write about this a while, but have been wondering how I can do it justice. The first thing I read by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was this short story online- '<a href="http://www.granta.com/Archive/95/Jumping-Monkey-Hill/Page-1">Jumping Monkey Hill</a>' (which I found on A Striped Armchair), and I think it was a good introduction. There are a lot of the same themes that crop up in her novels (at least the two I've read) and especially in <i>Americanah</i>- she takes on race and colonialism and identity, as well as the idea of authenticity. The real greatness in her writing, I think, is that it tackles these themes in a thought-provoking, confronting and not at all tired way. I read <i>Purple Hibiscus </i>last year and enjoyed it, would highly recommend it, but for me <i>Americanah </i>is a stand-out book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Americanah</i> is the story of two Nigerian high-school sweethearts- Ifemelu and Obinze- who are separated when Ifemelu moves to America for college and Obinze is unable to get a visa to follow her. Instead, he ends up spending some time in the UK before returning to Nigeria. In America, Ifemelu starts a successful blog on race in America from the perspective of an outsider. But her time in America starts to make her question her identity as well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">When I was looking at reading books from Africa from my reading around the world challenge, most of the books I could find were written by expats for a Western audience, and this is no exception. What interests me is that Adichie is so aware of this, and it's a big part of what she is writing about here, in a way that challenges you to think about your position as a reader as well as the role of the writer. It's a very global story, moving between countries and showing a range of perspectives. It's also very self-reflexive- it's easy to draw parallels between the character of Ifemelu and Chimamanda Adichie herself, as American-educated Nigerians. Though Ifemelu often feels like the main point-of-view character the presence of Obinze creates an alternative- they are both quite reflective as well, so that no character or opinion seems to go unquestioned. With this questioning and the global nature of the story it feels so contemporary, and there's a lot here to cause reflection on the state of the world, or to relate to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I also really loved the characters themselves, and I was hoping things would turn out well for them and their relationship despite all the hurdles this book throws at them, which made for a satisfying read. I really wish I still had the book with me to quote from, because it is all around fantastic and I feel I have been raving rather than providing a balanced review. What can I say? Trust me and read <i>Americanah</i>.</span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-86773516768857549072014-01-29T19:14:00.001+11:002014-01-29T19:14:58.681+11:00book haul<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm more of a library borrower than a book buyer generally, so you don't see many of these posts, but on the weekend I finally got around to using a (very old) book voucher at <a href="http://www.gleebooks.com.au/home">Gleebooks</a>, and I thought I'd share the results!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-9M8IdS557FWr38URCyl-QFMt5G5C3AFR_8ClefQabCuUrrQCqfM_rul_JxbOLFHcLaKhCVQV_iR-umtjsnWCGB40WnvRm_cTO8KZIRCFdyKPFJSt-iHo3Lyba_XmSqmHCO0/s1600/2014-01-29+18.31.32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy-9M8IdS557FWr38URCyl-QFMt5G5C3AFR_8ClefQabCuUrrQCqfM_rul_JxbOLFHcLaKhCVQV_iR-umtjsnWCGB40WnvRm_cTO8KZIRCFdyKPFJSt-iHo3Lyba_XmSqmHCO0/s1600/2014-01-29+18.31.32.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Bad quality photo- but beautiful books</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Man Within - Graham Greene</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Honestly the only reason I picked this was 1) it cost the right amount to use up the last few dollars of my book voucher, 2) I really loved my Graham Greene reading last year and 3) I was in a bit of a hurry by this point. I actually know nothing about this book, so that could be interesting. The back cover suggests its a courtroom drama about smuggling? Intriguing...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The latest in the Peter Grant series- urban fantasy/crime books set in London. The main character is a policeman and apprentice wizard. I've mentioned these before, <a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/books-to-look-forward-to.html">here</a> and briefly <a href="http://www.phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/2011-book-list.html">here</a> (I thought I'd written something longer somewhere, but my search doesn't seem to be working properly, so I can never be sure). Basically, I think these are fun but occasionally flawed by things like drastic shifts in tone, strange editing and a hero who is sometimes just too oblivious. Still, for the most part pretty good (and I'm still buying them as they come out, so they must be doing something right).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Luminaries - Eleanor Catton</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Last year's Booker prize winner, and my next book group read. I thought buying it was a better bet than trying to get my hands on it at the library. I must admit to being a bit daunted by the size of it, but encouraged since <a href="http://dolorosa12.wordpress.com/">Ronni </a>recommended it very highly (though sadly she hasn't written about it, I don't think). As far as I know it involves murder, possibly conspiracies, a New Zealand family in the 19th century, maybe a family saga? Or maybe just historical? Not sure- will find out (hopefully I will make it to the end).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Late Scholar - Jill Paton Walsh</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I read the first paragraphs of <a href="http://thinkinginfragments.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/the-late-scholar-jill-paton-walsh/">Alex's review</a> over at <a href="http://thinkinginfragments.wordpress.com/">Thinking in Fragments</a> and was so excited to see that this was a continuation of Dorothy L. Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels and apparently pretty well done that I knew I wanted to get my hands on it. Just now I've had a closer look and noticed that it is the 4th in Walsh's Peter Wimsey books, but although it might have been a good idea to start at the beginning (so to speak?) I am pretty excited to read this.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I'm sad that I <i>still </i>haven't managed to get my hands on Sarah Rees Brennan's <i>Untold</i>, but hopefully soon! In the meantime I have plenty to keep me busy... </span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-61463429708023182162014-01-21T22:21:00.001+11:002014-01-25T11:19:20.975+11:002013 favourites<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Now I'm back from my beach holiday, back at work, and 2014 is officially underway, it's finally time to write about some of my favourite books and authors from last year. And I'll try to keep it brief!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Authors</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Graham Greene</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I read Greene's <i>The End of the Affair</i> in 2012, and I liked it but wasn't sure whether I loved it or not. But I read <i>Our Man in Havana</i> this year pretty much fell in love with it (thanks for the recommendation <a href="http://litlove.wordpress.com/">litlove!</a>). This inspired me to read more Greene, so I read <i>The Quiet American</i> next. Despite this being a more serious book, they both have certain similarities- not least that they both touch on espionage, politics, love and Catholicism. Really enjoyed both of them, will look out for more in future!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Robin McKinley</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Having heard recommendations for Robin McKinley (particularly <i>Sunshine </i>and <i>Beauty</i>) for years, but only got around to reading them last year, after another recommendation for <i>Sunshine. </i>And it was worth it! I really enjoyed it, though I don't know that I can explain why- except that the characters are great, it's vampires are suitably menacing and its romance somewhat unconventional. I went on to read <i>Rose Daughter</i> and then <i>Beauty</i> (both retellings of Beauty and the Beast) which I enjoyed, though I liked <i>Rose Daughter </i>best. I think <i>Beauty </i>suffered a bit from being read too soon after <i>Rose Daughter</i>, since they are quite similar, but I also really liked the sisters in and their relationship in <i>Rose Daughter</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Fantasy</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Unspoken - Sarah Rees Brennan</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I <a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/recent-reads.html">wrote about this earlier</a>- but I just wanted to reiterate how much I enjoyed it! It's one of those books that just taps into certain tropes that I love- mainly angsty Gothic heroes. But it's also written with a lightness and sense of humour, and the heroine and her friends are great (strange how hard it is to find books, especially fantasy books, with a good set of friends! Sometimes you get sick of lone wolves). I'm just sad I still haven't managed to read the sequel...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b><br /></b><b>Among Others - Jo Walton</b></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Again, I<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/life-and-books.html"> wrote about this when I read it</a>, but writing out this list reminded me of it again. It plays with the fantasy genre in an interesting way, and it's sure to induce some nostalgia in anyone who grew up reading fantasy or sci-fi (especially sci-fi, as it's a massive roll-call of sci-fi classics). Occasionally the main character grated on me a little, but that might just be a function of the diary format (and maybe I was jealous of the number of sci-fi classics she had read) but her story was really interesting and I really liked this book all up.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Literary fiction</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I've read other books by Ondaatje before, but I wasn't prepared to love this as much as I did. The language was just gorgeous, I liked the way the book moved forward in fragments and the picture it created of life in early 20th Century Canada. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Beloved - Toni Morrison</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Another book I've heard of, and heard recommended, forever, but I have always been scared to read it. I picked it up from a library shelf one day because I was looking for something to read, and I'm glad I did. Yes, there are definitely some traumatic events in this book, but it is well worth it. Some great characters and great writing, the way that people speak, the way that the text skirts around memories for so long before addressing them head-on... And another reminder of the trauma and inhumanity of slavery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Clear Light of Day - Anita Desai</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">An understated story about family and Partition in India. Maybe not so much of a rave review as the others, but I just thought this was a really good book.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>Crossing to Safety - Wallace Stegner</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I had to read this after reading <a href="http://bookssnob.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/crossing-to-safety-by-wallace-stegner/">Book Snob's rave review</a>, and it was indeed a lovely book. The story of two couples and their friendships from the 1930s onwards, it just has a sort of honesty and gentleness. It also feels like quite an American book to me, but a part of America that I often forget exists.<b><br /></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><b>The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Just a rollicking good read- a Western with a little bit of sadness and a large sense of humour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Non-fiction</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">I actually read some good non-fiction this year, too much to list almost! <i>The Beast and the Blonde</i> was fascinating and thought-provoking, <i><span style="font-size: small;">Sidetracks: Explorations
of a Romantic biographer </span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;">was a fun read that introduced me to some <span style="font-size: small;">Romantic figures and non-fiction writing methods I didn't know, <i>Victorian Honeymoons</i> was just a great topic which delved into speculation in a satisfyingly </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">human way, and <i>Carnet de Voyage </i><span style="font-size: small;">was a very personal and b<span style="font-size: small;">eautifully dr<span style="font-size: small;">awn graphic<span style="font-size: small;"> non-fiction work about travel and writing. But maybe top for me <span style="font-size: small;">was <i>Blue Nights </i>by Joan <span style="font-size: small;">Didion- a memoir which could be rambling and self<span style="font-size: small;">-ser<span style="font-size: small;">ving perhaps but always took me along with it<span style="font-size: small;"> and was just lovely writing. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-5644830314974425582013-12-31T11:29:00.002+11:002014-01-01T22:36:42.063+11:00book list 2013<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The annual list of new books read in 2013! My New Year's Eve celebrations are sooner than anticipated, so this post is a bit curtailed- but here they are! I read 88 books in 2013, a personal best, which I am putting down to a long commute, and maybe the number of graphic novels. There are some good books in here (and some not-so-good) which hopefully I will get to post about another day!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">ETA: Now added links to books that I've blogged about. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The High Window - Raymond
Chandler</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Lady in the Lake -
Raymond Chandler</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Little Sister - Raymond
Chandler</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Perks of Being a
Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/1990s-miss-smillas-feeling-for-snow-1992.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/not-wisely-but-too-well.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Book Lust - Nancy Pearl</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Master and
Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Year of the Griffin - Diana
Wynne Jones</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Art in Nature - Tove
Jansson</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/recent-reads.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Unspoken - Sarah Rees Brennan</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/recent-reads.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Long Ships - FransG. Bengtsson</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/recent-reads.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Wildwood - ColinMeloy, illus. Carson Ellis</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/recent-reads.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Under Wildwood - ColinMeloy, illus. Carson Ellis</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/recent-reads.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Inverted World - ChristopherPriest</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">French Milk - Lucy
Knisley</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/eaten-alive.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">From the Beast to theBlonde - Marina Warner</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Minority Council -
Kate Griffin</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Purple Hibiscus - Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Carnet de Voyage - Craig
Thompson</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Embroideries - Marjane
Satrapi</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/life-and-books.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Among Others - Jo Walton</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">NW - Zadie Smith</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/life-and-books.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Sea Hearts - MargoLanagan</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/eaten-alive.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Shadow of the Sun- A.S. Byatt</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">In the Last Analysis -
Amanda Cross</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The James Joyce Murder
- Amanda Cross</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Poetic Justice - Amanda
Cross</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Howards End is on the
Landing - Susan Hill</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Theban Mysteries -
Amanda Cross</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Life after Life - Kate
Atkinson</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Question of Max - Amanda
Cross</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/victorian-mysteries.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Victorian Honeymoons:Journeys to the Conjugal - Helena Michie</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Death in the Faculty -
Amanda Cross</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Silver Bough - Lisa
Tuttle</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Jade Peony - Wayson
Choy</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/victorian-mysteries.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Moonstone - WilkieCollins</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Sunshine - Robin
McKinley</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Ocean at the End
of the Lane - Neil Gaiman</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Stray Souls - Kate
Griffin</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Cold Steel - Kate
Elliot</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Suspicions of Mr
Whicher - Kate Summerscale</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Christ Files - John
Dickson</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Damaged in Transit - Mary
Manning</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Our Man in Havana - Graham
Greene</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Game - Diana Wynne
Jones</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Rose Daughter - Robin
McKinley</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Long Goodbye - Raymond
Chandler</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Beauty - Robin
McKinley</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Serpent's Tooth - Robert
Swindells</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Quiet American - Graham
Greene</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The House in Paris - Elizabeth
Bowen</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Greatcoat - Helen
Dunmore</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Women of Letters - ed.
Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Glass Castle - Jeanette
Walls</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/fairies-and-folk.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Perilous Gard - ElizabethMarie Pope</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Palace of
Curiosities - Rosie Garland</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Norseman's Song - Joel
Deane</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Gathering Light - Jennifer
Donnelly</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">In the Skin of a Lion
- Michael Ondaatje</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/fairies-and-folk.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Thursday - CatherineStorr</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Beloved - Toni
Morrison</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Never Let Me Go - Kazuo
Ishiguro</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Nervous Conditions - Tsitsi
Dangarembga</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Crossing to Safety - Wallace
Stegner</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Lovely Ladies - Nicholas
Freeling</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Black Maria - Diana
Wynne Jones</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Long Silence - Nicholas
Freeling</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Clear Light of Day - Anita
Desai</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/burial-rites-hannah-kent.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Burial Rites - Hannah Kent</span></span></a></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/books-to-look-forward-to.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Brief History of Montmaray - Michelle Cooper</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Eight Days of Luke - Diana
Wynne Jones</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://phantomday.blogspot.com.au/2013/11/the-castle-of-otranto-horace-walpole.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Castle of Otranto- Horace Walpole</span></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Gone Girl - Gillian
Flynn</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Crying of Lot 49 -
Thomas Pynchon</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Train to Pakistan - Khushwant
Singh</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Blue Nights - Joan
Didion</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Sugar and Other
Stories - A.S. Byatt</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Opposite House - Helen
Oyeyemi</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Sisters Brothers -
Patrick deWitt</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Nick and Norah's
Infinite Playlist - Rachel Cohn and David Levithan</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Confessions of a
Shopaholic - Sophie Kinsella</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Snuff - Terry
Pratchett</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">A Mind to Murder - P.D.
James</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Sidetracks: Explorations
of a Romantic biographer - Richard Holmes</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">How to Fall in Love - Cecilia
Ahern</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Killing Moon - N.K.
Jemisin</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">The Shadowed Sun - N.K.
Jemisin</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Inherent Vice - Thomas
Pynchon</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-AU;">Happy New Year!</span></span></div>
Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-77863962283047954732013-12-24T12:06:00.001+11:002013-12-24T12:06:39.410+11:00Merry Christmas!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-sTzZEuGaO07EFiYZyReGBgRBZydCjyiYoml0owCAvINjU_60p9mQ6L3XLjQ2Iuksj32wRx0-PHqRSQlIqJytXRQiJlYHcQu90wBmkGcCDtj3_MAem1FJzW_LHmYJpQD6W0yG/s1600/IMG_1398%5B1%5D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-sTzZEuGaO07EFiYZyReGBgRBZydCjyiYoml0owCAvINjU_60p9mQ6L3XLjQ2Iuksj32wRx0-PHqRSQlIqJytXRQiJlYHcQu90wBmkGcCDtj3_MAem1FJzW_LHmYJpQD6W0yG/s200/IMG_1398%5B1%5D.JPG" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'm ready for Christmas over here</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Merry Christmas all! By the time you read this I will likely be on holidays (finally!) and enjoying some time off. It's been an exhausting year and I'm looking forward to a break. But although the blog has been quiet, it has been a year full of plenty of reading, so I'll be back sometime soon to write up my reading list of 2013.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the meantime, I hope you're all having some wonderful holidays and have many books waiting underneath the Christmas tree!</span></div>
Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-69443774332989923202013-11-14T15:52:00.003+11:002013-11-14T15:52:33.968+11:00The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole (1764)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Slowly slowly working on my reading challenge this year- reading more books written before the 20th century. It looks like we're slowly going further back in time, from the 19th Century (The Moonstone) to the 18th, with <i>The Castle of Otranto</i> by Horace Walpole, and sticking with genre fiction so far, from the detective story to the Gothic. As <i>The Moonstone</i> is known as one of the earliest examples of detective fiction, so <i>The Castle of Otranto </i>is an early Gothic novel. And how! A brief summary: the prince of Otranto (Manfred) is obsessed with carrying on the male line, and when his son dies unexpectedly just before his wedding to Isabella, best friend of Manfred's daughter Matilda, this obsession grows, as he tries to avoid the family curse. He is clearly concealing a family secret, and is horrified at the giant coat of armour which appears to haunt the library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I thought what would stand out about this book is its part in the history of the Gothic, but what really stood out for me is its status as an early example of the novel, full stop. Well, that's what I was planning to say, and then realised it may have more to do with the fact that this is trying to masquerade as a much earlier novel (Walpole explains in his introduction how he 'found' a '16th century' 'Italian' manuscript, and then 'translated' it (one of the oldest tropes in fiction?). So I will settle for saying that, by accident or design, this definitely feels quite unpolished. It reads very theatrically somehow- there is lots of dialogue, the characters occasionally make asides that you can imagine them speaking to the audience and it seems less interested in the internal workings of people's minds than in how they play out in front of us. In fact, it reads mostly to me like a Jacobean revenge tragedy (or what I imagine one to be like). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's interesting to think of this book being inspired by these plays, and going on to inspire the later genre of gothic fiction. It casts a new light on it, for me anyway. I just decided to do a little background reading on <i>The Castle of Otranto</i>, and the first article that I decided to read says "Shakespeare's influence on the early Gothic was varied and profound."* There you go, it is apparently a long established connection. To my mind, though, the idea of 'gothic' conjures up the thought of a more atmospheric novel, full of dread and psychological horror, while <i>The Castle of Otranto </i>has more of a moustache-twirling villain feel to it. But the elements are there- the family secret, the haunting, an old castle, secret passageways, a romance. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So maybe I was wrong. I have learnt something new about the Gothic genre, and mostly I have learnt how much more there is to know (why is this so often the case?).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">----------</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*Yael Shapira, 2012, 'Shakespeare, <i>The Castle of Otranto</i>, and the problem of the corpse on the Eighteenth-Century stage', <i>Eighteenth-Century Life,</i> 36(1), 1-29</span><br />
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<br />Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21806538.post-88220467163300744182013-10-15T18:52:00.000+11:002013-10-15T18:52:56.264+11:00burial rites - hannah kent<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I NEED to write about <em>Burial Rites</em> by Hannah Kent- it's a book I was very much looking forward to (see my last post), and yet I ended up feeling a bit ambivalent about it, so I have been itching to discuss it with someone since finishing it. It would be ideal for a book group, but unfortunately we didn't read it in book group, so blog it is! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em>Burial Rites </em>has an intriguing set-up- a woman (Agnes Magnusdottir) is condemned to death for murder but, since she is living in Iceland in the 19th century and there are no jails, so until her execution she is lodged in a remote farm with with the family of a local official. During her stay she is able to talk to a priest, who is instructed to prepare her for death. To him, and to us, she relates her story. So interwoven with the story of Agnes life at the farm, living with a family who are apprehensive abot hosting a convicted murder and facing her impending death, is the story of Agnes life up to this point, leading to the answer the the all-important question- is she guilty or is hse innocent? Of course, it doesn't turn out to be that simple.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So far, so good- so why was I so ambivalent? Well, mostly the answer lies in the writing style. To me, it felt a bit like the first novel it is. I want to describe it as 'overwritten', but I don't really like that as a criticism. It sounds like 'trying too hard', and what is wrong with trying? What is wrong with using writing that is more than just functional? I feel like I don't have the words to really pick it apart properly, the best I can say is sometimes her turn of phrase would trip me up, jerk me out of the story. It didn't feel as smooth as it could be. Better, though, to just quote some of it, to let you make up your own mind:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I ought to leave now, I think," Toti announced.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">His father looked up from the boiling fish and nodded.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I'm expected to arrive early in the evening to acquaint myself with the family at Korns<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">á</span>, and be present when... Well when the criminal arrives."
His father frowned. "Go then, son."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Toti hesitated. "Do you think I'm ready?"</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A bit of dialogue that seems fairly functional, but committing what some would say is a cardinal sin: too many synonyms for 'said'. OK, technically most of them are actually other actions but the effect is similar, it seems a bit stilted to me. The same page also features 'muttered', 'called out' and 'whispered'. Then there's this:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"He silently mouthed the word to himself. Murderess. <i>Morðingi</i>. It slipped through his mouth like milk." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The last sentence annoyed me at the time, but I don't know why" it seems fine reading it now. Maybe it is the broader context that made it incongruous, or maybe my mood at the time? It is all so subjective I suppose.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Spending so much time trying to figure out what my problems with the writing style were makes it seem like they were more problematic than they were- this is definitely not a badly written book, I just felt it could be better. And there were moments of writing that I really liked, like this one (though again- why? I think it just seems to capture an idea so well):</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I will hold what I am inside, and keep my hands tight around all the things I have seen and heard, and felt... I am sinking all I have left and going underwater. If I speak, it will be in bubbles of air. They will not be able to keep my words for themselves. They will see the whore, the madwoman, the murderess, the female dripping blood into the grass and laughing with her mouth choked with dirt. They will say 'Agnes' and see the spider, the witch caught in the webbing of her own fateful weaving. They might see the lamb circled by ravens, bleating for a lost mother. But they will not see me. I will not be there.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The character of Agnes is also a difficult one. The narrative voice is very different in Agnes' (first person) passages and the third person shifting perspective of everyone else. In a way it felt like Agnes was more dramatic in her own head than in others' perceptions, and there were times when her character felt quite disjointed because of it- more mysterious when there should be more insight. But I can't really fault the book for presenting a disjointed picture of her character, after all, as the passage I've quoted suggests, that theme of identity and story-telling is an important one in the book. Ultimately Agnes is able to tell her story twice- to the other characters in the book, and directly to us. The differences in the way Agnes sees herself and the way others see her can be unexpected- it often feels like the other characters are aware of her humanity while Agnes sees herself as a cursed, doomed figure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There was a lot here that was thought-provoking, and in the end it was a very moving story, with most characters ending up more nuanced than I feared they might be in the beginning. The book followed up on its promise- and yet... I felt it could be more. Maybe it was simply a case of too high expectations that kept me from loving it. I did like it. I still have to figure out how I feel about it. So please, tell me if you've read it and if so, what did you think?</span>Catiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04434990195940872461noreply@blogger.com2