Captain's (Reading) Log: Stardate 2013.01-.365

[Scheherazade]

Please share the books you have read in 2013 in this thread.

I have started reading The Boys from Brazil by Levin as part of my 13-seconds reading challenge.

[Scheherazade]

1. The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin (S1) ~ 8/10 A thriller based on a Nazi conspiracy with a hint of sci-fi, an entertaining page-turner; ideal for holidays.

2. A Short Story of Tracktors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka (W1/N1) ~ 7/10 A humourous take on immigrants living the UK. Very promising!

3. Decameron by Boccaccio (R11) ~ 8/10

4. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (W2/S2) ~ 7/10

[islandclimber]

You finished a book already this year?!?! Was it a novella? :p

[Silas D]

1. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen 9/10.

[MementoMori]

1. King Lear.

[Babyguile]

Oh poops. I wanted to make this thread. I knew I would forget to do it and someone else would make it instead. I guess also we could include books we FINISHED in 2013 but may have started earlier.

[Scheherazade]

You finished a book already this year?!?! Was it a novella? :pSomewhat; about 200 pages and I started on December 31st actually. :D


Oh poops. I wanted to make this thread. I knew I would forget to do it and someone else would make it instead.If you feel so strongly about it, I can remove my thread and let you start one...

[islandclimber]

War and War ~ László Krasznahorkai 9.25/10

A reread, but certainly a worthwhile one. Brilliant book.

[papayahed]

Please share the books you have read in 2013 in this thread.

I have started reading The Boys from Brazil by Levin as part of my 13-seconds reading challenge.

What is this 13-seconds reading challenge you speak of?

I'm still working on the 11 new authors in 2011.:confused5:

[Scheherazade]

What is this 13-seconds reading challenge you speak of?http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?72792-13-Seconds


I'm still working on the 11 new authors in 2011.:confused5: You get full marks for dedication and determination! :smilewinkgrin:

[Volya]

Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle

[Helga]

Trojan Women by Seneca, it's a play I read on January 1. I am just about finished with Apuleius and a good way through Ovid

[Silas D]

2. A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines 7/10.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

[Silas D]

3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami 9/10.

[Desolation]

1. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

[Bibliophile79]

January
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde 12/24/12 - 01/02/13 ***
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick 1/02 - 1/03 *** ½
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/03 - 1/07 *** ½
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/07 - 1/10 ***
Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/10 - 1/13 *** ½
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/13 - 1/14 ***
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion 1/22 - 1/24 ****
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris 1/24 - 1/27 ****
Room by Emma Donoghue 1/28 - 1/29 **

February
Lust for Life by Irving Stone 1/29 - 2/6 **
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin 2/6 - 2/22 ****
Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini 2/23 - 2/26 ***

March
The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews 2/26 - 3/2 ****
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 3/2 - 3/6 ****
World's End by T.C. Boyle 3/6 - 3/12 ****
Summerland by Michael Chabon 3/12 - 3/15 ****

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus.

[NikolaiI]

The Illearth War by Stephen R. Donaldson

9/10

[The Comedian]

Song of Roland annon. 4/5 (Translated by John DuVal)
I enjoyed reading this poem of Medieval knights, Charmaine, and the Battle of Roncesvalles. The rhythm and sound of the translation was outstanding (not that I know old French to compare it to). It makes me want to read the epic of el Cid sometime later this year.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

[kiki1982]

After a disappointing performance last year (6, shame on you! Work work work), I have started off by finishing Eugénie Grandet by Balzac and decided to have some fun with the sequel to The Warden, Barchester Towers by Trollope.
Sir Lambda Mewnew and Sir Omikron Pie :lol: still makes me smile. :)

[Silas D]

4. The Magus by John Fowles 9/10.

[Helga]

Eneas by Virgil 7/10
The Valley of fear by Arthur Conan Doyle 9/10 (this is probably my favorite Holmes)
Germania By Tacitus 6/10
A Ghost story by Platus 7/19
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle 7/10

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
The sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but everything before that was exceptional.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

[kasie]

....... as part of my 13-seconds reading challenge.

You can read a book in 13 seconds???? :eek2:

So that's how you manage all these Reading Challenges - I've often wondered....

[Scheherazade]

1. The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin (S1) ~ 8/10

2. A Short Story of Tracktors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka (W1/N1) ~ 7/10

3. Decameron by Boccaccio (R11) ~ 8/10

4. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (W2/S2) ~ 7/10

5. The Cider House Rules by John Irving ~ 9/10

6. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (W3/N2) ~ 6/10

7. The Bostonians by Henry James (S3) ~ 8/10

8. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (N3) ~ 7/10

9. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (W4/S4) ~ 8/10

10. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (W5/S5) ~ 7/10 I was expecting this to be a rather tragic love story but Atwood has no time for romance, tragic or otherwise. And in a post-apocalyptic world, there is no time for romance either, anyhow... Only for memories.

11. The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham (N4) ~ 5/10 Felt utterly bored reading about the poor rich people. Almost like Gatsby, without its charms.

12. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (W6/S6) ~ 8/10 As good as Patchett's other book Bel Canto. A search for a missing colleague turns into a discovery of self in the middle of Amazon.

13. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers (W7/S7) ~ 10/10 Beyond doubt, she is one of my favourite authors. Touching, tragic and sad... So much so that it is funny.

14. The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene (S8) ~ 7/10

15. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (W8/S9) ~ 7/10

16. The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald (R1) ~ 9/10

17. The Sweet Thursday by Steinbeck (R2) ~ 9/10

18. Changing Places by David Lodge (N5) ~ 6/10

19. One of Ours by Willa Cather (W9/S10 ~ 4/10

20. Ann Veronica by HG Wells ~ 3/10

21. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (S11) ~ 8/10

22. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen (N6) ~ 8/10 Ideal summer read.

23. Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (N7) ~ 7/10

24. Paddy Clark, Ha Ha Ha! by Roddy Doyle (N8)~ 8/10

25. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (N9) ~ 9/10

26. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway ~ 6/10

27. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (S12) ~ 9/10

28. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (N10) ~ 8/10

29. Pygmalion GB Shaw (R3) ~ 9/10

30. Dolores Claibourne by Stephen King (S13) ~ 8/10

31. Tinkers by Paul Harding (N11/P) ~ 9/10

32. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy (N12) ~ 8/10

33. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (N13/P) ~ 7/10

34. The Reivers by Faulkner (P) ~ 9/10

35. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (N14)

36. 39. Sputnik, Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami (S16)

37. A Country Doctor’s Notebook by Bulgakov (S15) ~ 8/10

38. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 7/10

39. I Should Have Stayed Home by Horace McCoy (S14) ~ 6/10[/I]

40. Crying Lot of 49 by Thomas Pynchon (N16) ~ 7/10

41. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (W11/S17) ~ 8/10

42. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene ~ 9/10

43. The Time Machine by HG Wells ~ 7/10

44. The Year of the Flood by Atwood (W10) - 5/10

46. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ~ 8/10

47. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (N15/P)~ 5/10

48. Kafka On the Shore by Murakami ~ 10/10

49. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie ~ 8/10






You can read a book in 13 seconds???? Only on a slow day!

[Lykren]

I posted this on the new authors reading challege as well, but that's only because I'll be reading ALL new authors this year. Besides, my opinions have changed. For example...

1. The Golden Notebook seems in retrospect as though it dealt with some very interesting, difficult problems of modern society; for example, what is the relevance of love in a sexually 'liberated' society? Whereas...

2. Lady Chatterley's Lover has not really changed yet for me. I still have a problem with its dualistic approach to civilization vs. nature and felt somehow as though a better alternative to civilization was not really offered - though I admit the relationship was occasionally quite touching.

Still reading Of Human Bondage, though I'm almost done. I can't say I think it's a favorite or that I want to read more Somerset Maugham, BUT... it occasionally makes me feel like crying and I have no idea why. So that's a plus.

[kasie]

...... Only on a slow day!

:biggrin5:

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

[LadyLuck]

World War Z 7/10. It's as much a good read because of the convincing way in which it is put together. It reads as a journalist's account of others experiences, but it really brings the whole picture of the world together for me.

[kiki1982]

Vanity Fair. Enoying that very much so far. Exceedinly weird...

[Desolation]

I've managed to read exactly 2 writers so far this year:

1. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (7/10)
2. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (8/10)
3. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (10/10)
4. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (8/10)
5. Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (9/10)
6. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (8/10)
7. Othello by William Shakespeare (10/10)

[papayahed]

Unholy Night Grahame-Smith, Seth 9/10
Soon I will be Invincible Grossmn, Austin 7/10
Dead Until Dark Harris, Charlaine 7.5/10

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.
Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.
Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies hat have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

[RedHawk]

I'm still working on Wizards First Rule (Terry Goodkind) And, no, I havent been stuck on it since '95, LOL.

[Bibliophile79]

Couldn't edit for some reason. Anyway:

January
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde 12/24/12 - 01/02/13 ***
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick 1/02 - 1/03 *** ½
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/03 - 1/07 *** ½
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/07 - 1/10 ***
Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/10 - 1/13 *** ½
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/13 - 1/14 ***
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion 1/22 - 1/24 ****
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris 1/24 - 1/27 ****
Room by Emma Donoghue 1/28 - 1/29 **

February
Lust for Life by Irving Stone 1/29 - 2/6 **
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin 2/6 - 2/22 ****
Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini 2/23 - 2/26 ***

March
The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews 2/26 - 3/2 ****
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 3/2 - 3/6 ****
World's End by T.C. Boyle 3/6 - 3/12 ****
Summerland by Michael Chabon 3/12 - 3/15 ****
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 3/18 - 3/20 ****
John Adams by David McCullough 3/21 - 3/30 ****

April
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 4/3 - 4/9 ** 1/2
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson 4/9 - 4/12 ** 1/2
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/12 - 4/17 *****
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony 4/17 - 4/24 **
Son of Danse Macabre by Bryce Wilson 4/24 - 4/27 *****
Looking for Alaska by John Green 4/27 - 4/29 **

May
Duma Key by Stephen King 4/29 - 5/9 **

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina

[mona amon]

My list so far -

1. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. 6.5/10 It was a good book, but I've forgotten what I wanted to say about it. Really should take notes.
2. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett. 9/10 Funny, tragic, endearing. Cannot imagine why people find it boring.
3. The Bostonians - Henry James 7/10 This was a really good reading experience. James is a genius!
4. A Room With a View - E M Forster (re-read) 6/10 I love E M forster, and this was a good book, though Howard's End and Passage to India were better.
5. Intruder in the Dust - William Faulkner. 7/10 Faulkner writes a murder mystery!:hurray: And it's a good one. I felt it was a bit repetitive and could have been cut down to an even shorter novel, or I'd have given it a higher rating.
6. Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw (re-read). 8/10 Shaw at his argumentative best.
7. Bridget Jones Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding. 6/10 Like its predecessor, an engaging, entertaining fun read. :)

Uh oh, I see I've given Forster's novel and Bridget Jones the same rating. Stupid ratings...I never seem to get them right!

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
The sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but everything before that was exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies hat have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Completed:
1 Marco Polo & Rustichello da Pisa The Travels of Marco Polo
2 John Keats - a few selected poems including first pass of To Autumn -will take a few more passes to fully absorb.

Works in progress:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - August 1914-The Red Wheel at page 560 about 240 to go.
Plutarch Plutarch's Lives currently on Numa Pompilius
Emil Miller - A Tangled Web Chapter 5

[JuniperWoolf]

Fashion Beast - Alan Moore
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly (again, but this is the first time I picked up on the idea that Frankenstein is gay so it was a new experience for me)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (I shot the albatross!)
Manfred - Lord Byron
Some Wordsworth
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake
Rape of the Lock - Alexander Pope

[YesNo]

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark
A Tangled Web, Emil Miller
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Anita Loos

[Scheherazade]

Frankenstein - Mary Shelly (again, but this is the first time I picked up on the idea that Frankenstein is gay so it was a new experience for me)Imagine all the things you might pick on if you read it for a third time!

[JuniperWoolf]

Imagine all the things you might pick on if you read it for a third time!

It'll probably be completely different! It's so strange reading things a few years after you've read them the first time, when your personality and awareness is different. I remember reading it when I was a teenager and I had a bit of a crush on the doctor, but this time I found him selfish and self-deluded and couldn't stand him.

[OrphanPip]

It'll probably be completely different! It's so strange reading things a few years after you've read them the first time, when your personality and awareness is different. I remember reading it when I was a teenager and I had a bit of a crush on the doctor, but this time I found him selfish and self-deluded and couldn't stand him.

The other day I was reading some of my old posts on the forum, and noticed that I said I couldn't stand Daniel Defoe. Now I'm writing an MA thesis on Daniel Defoe, I don't know what happened.

[*Classic*Charm*]

Now I'm writing an MA thesis on Daniel Defoe, I don't know what happened.

Jeez, the last time I was here you were working on a genetics degree, no?

1. I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered my Mother, my Sister, and my Brother... -Edited by Michel Foucault
2. The Birth of the Clinic- Michel Foucault

I can't wait to finish Vanity Fair so I can move on to another novel... Pretty sure I've been working on it for two years now :s Pitiful.

[JuniperWoolf]

Jeez, the last time I was here you were working on a genetics degree, no?

He got his microbiology degree, Pip is the total package.

[OrphanPip]

He got his microbiology degree, Pip is the total package.

If by that you mean someone who has spent far too much time in school, haha.

But, yes, I got my microbiology degree 4 years ago, I then managed to get a BA over that time period (semi part-time, and fulltime at the end), and now am doing my MA at McGill because the fellowship they offered me made it essentially free. I'm waiting to hear from SSHRC to find out if I'll have funding for next year, which would be nice.

[*Classic*Charm*]

If by that you mean someone who has spent far too much time in school, haha.

But, yes, I got my microbiology degree 4 years ago, I then managed to get a BA over that time period (semi part-time, and fulltime at the end), and now am doing my MA at McGill because the fellowship they offered me made it essentially free. I'm waiting to hear from SSHRC to find out if I'll have funding for next year, which would be nice.

That's wicked. Congrats!



Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge)


Love this! I'll never forget those verses:

"Why lookst thou so?"
With my crossbow
I shot the albatross

[prendrelemick]

Fashion Beast - Alan Moore
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly (again, but this is the first time I picked up on the idea that Frankenstein is gay so it was a new experience for me)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (I shot the albatross!)
Manfred - Lord Byron
Some Wordsworth
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake
Rape of the Lock - Alexander Pope

Wow! Hope you're not becoming affected by all of the above.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mccarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

[JuniperWoolf]

Wow! Hope you're not becoming affected by all of the above.

Haha, I'll absorb them all and become a nature-worshipping naturalistic rake or something. Since I've started my long poetry phase I do have a lot more cool phrases. That reminds me that I also read The Goblin Market, so now whevever I see someone scary looking in the city I've thought "we must not look at goblin men, we must not buy their fruit; who knows upon what soil they fed their hungry thirsty roots?"

[mona amon]

I remember our english teacher reading us Goblin Market long ago - She read it really well and it made quite an impression, but haven't thought about it since then until I saw your post, Juniper. Just read it again, and to me now it doesn't seem that suitable for children! :sosp:

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

......

[mona amon]

My list so far -

1. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. 6.5/10 It was a good book, but I've forgotten what I wanted to say about it. Really should take notes.
2. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett. 9/10 Funny, tragic, endearing. Cannot imagine why people find it boring.
3. The Bostonians - Henry James 7/10 This was a really good reading experience. James is a genius!
4. A Room With a View - E M Forster (re-read) 6/10 I love E M forster, and this was a good book, though Howard's End and Passage to India were better.
5. Intruder in the Dust - William Faulkner. 7/10 Faulkner writes a murder mystery!:hurray: And it's a good one. I felt it was a bit repetitive and could have been cut down to an even shorter novel, or I'd have given it a higher rating.
6. Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw (re-read). 8/10 Shaw at his argumentative best.
7. Bridget Jones Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding. 6/10 Like its predecessor, an engaging, entertaining fun read. :)

Uh oh, I see I've given Forster's novel and Bridget Jones the same rating. Stupid ratings...I never seem to get them right!

8. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf. 7/10 I really liked Mrs Dalloway, but reading this was mostly a chore! :sleep: The first part was boring boring boring...middle - sudden shock and surprise and all became haunting and beautiful...then again boring boring boring till - whew...the End.

[prendrelemick]

8. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf. 7/10 I really liked Mrs Dalloway, but reading this was mostly a chore! :sleep: The first part was boring boring boring...middle - sudden shock and surprise and all became haunting and beautiful...then again boring boring boring till - whew...the End.


I know, I know, It put me off VW for years.

[mona amon]

Hi prendrelemick! Did you read anything by VW after that? I'm thinking of giving her a nice long break!

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Completed:
1 Marco Polo & Rustichello da Pisa The Travels of Marco Polo
2 John Keats - a few selected poems including first pass of To Autumn -will take a few more passes to fully absorb.

Works in progress:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - August 1914-The Red Wheel at page 560 about 240 to go.
Plutarch Plutarch's Lives currently on Numa Pompilius


1. Marco Polo & Rustichello da Pisa The Travels of Marco Polo
2. John Keats - a few selected poems including first pass of To Autumn -will take a few more passes to fully absorb.
3. Emil Miller - A Tangled Web

[prendrelemick]

Hi prendrelemick! Did you read anything by VW after that? I'm thinking of giving her a nice long break!

I gave her a long break too, about 15 years. Then I read Orlando - and Liked it a lot. So I read The Voyage Out, which was OK

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

[mona amon]

My list so far -

1. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. 6.5/10 It was a good book, but I've forgotten what I wanted to say about it. Really should take notes.
2. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett. 9/10 Funny, tragic, endearing. Cannot imagine why people find it boring.
3. The Bostonians - Henry James 7/10 This was a really good reading experience. James is a genius!
4. A Room With a View - E M Forster (re-read) 6/10 I love E M forster, and this was a good book, though Howard's End and Passage to India were better.
5. Intruder in the Dust - William Faulkner. 7/10 Faulkner writes a murder mystery!:hurray: And it's a good one. I felt it was a bit repetitive and could have been cut down to an even shorter novel, or I'd have given it a higher rating.
6. Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw (re-read). 8/10 Shaw at his argumentative best.
7. Bridget Jones Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding. 6/10 Like its predecessor, an engaging, entertaining fun read. :)

Uh oh, I see I've given Forster's novel and Bridget Jones the same rating. Stupid ratings...I never seem to get them right!

8. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf. 7/10 I really liked Mrs Dalloway, but reading this was mostly a chore! The first part was boring boring boring...middle - sudden shock and surprise and all became haunting and beautiful...then again boring boring boring till - whew...the End.

9. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. 10/10 Wow! :shocked: Absolutely mind blowing! One of the best books I've ever read.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In the Red Room by Paul Bowles (short story) That man can write the most disconcerting, yet fascinating stuff.

[YesNo]

Dana Gioia, Pity the Beautiful. 7/10 These are metrical poems by someone who writes this sort of thing well. I'm still trying to make sense out of the title.

Stephen Mitchell, Gilgamesh, 8/10 Of all the characters, I liked the portrayal of Ishtar the best.

Sharon Olds, Stag's Leap, 8/10 These are poems about her divorce.

Gerald Stern, In Beauty Bright, 7/10 These rambling poems seemed to cast a spell on me. The title, however, makes no sense in terms of what is inside the book.

Leon Lederman, Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe, 8/10 Lederman presents a view of the conservation laws of physics using symmetry.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

[Lykren]

1. The Golden Notebook seems in retrospect as though it dealt with some very interesting, difficult problems of modern society; for example, what is the relevance of love in a sexually 'liberated' society? Whereas...

2. Lady Chatterley's Lover has not really changed yet for me. I still have a problem with its dualistic approach to civilization vs. nature and felt somehow as though a better alternative to civilization was not really offered - though I admit the relationship was occasionally quite touching.


3. Of Human Bondage is one of those books that improves after you've read it, when you start reflecting on how it moved you. Even though his prose style wasn't especially beautiful, the characters were sincerely drawn.

4. A Passage to India was a very interesting book, and slightly better written than Of Human Bondage. I enjoyed hearing about Mrs. Moore's perspective on the events. I think the mystical overtones he gives in his presentation of her are somehow the key to this novel. If there is such a thing as a key to a novel.

5. Ivanhoe felt like a typical adventure book, which doesn't really interest me, and I didn't care for the writing. At all.

6. Henry VI, I, II, and III were much more exciting than Ivanhoe!

7. King John is not one of my favorite history plays, and neither is

8. Henry V. Too bad Falstaff had to die!

9. Cymbeline was an interesting play with some beautiful passages, but I found myself slightly irritated by the wandering plot. Not my favorite of the Romances.

Coming up next: Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Romeo and Juliet. Then the Greek playwrights! Looking forward to those.

[mona amon]

10. N-W by Zadie Smith - 3/10

I liked White Teeth and On Beauty but this, her latest novel, was disappointing. She's lost none of her talent for writing, but she's evidently tried to experiment with form or something here, and it ends up being pointless and lackluster. Of course, that may be because it doesn't have much substance to start with, rather than the experimenting. I feel I've wasted my time.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

7. And Justice for Some by Wendy Murphy

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh.

[JuniperWoolf]

Fashion Beast - Alan Moore
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly (again, but this is the first time I picked up on the idea that Frankenstein is gay so it was a new experience for me)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (I shot the albatross!)
Manfred - Lord Byron
Some Wordsworth
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake
Rape of the Lock - Alexander Pope
Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti
__________________________________________________ ______________________________________

The entire A Song of Ice and Fire series again. I think I have a problem.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That Cheshire, he's a solid cat.

“Excuse me sir,” Alice enquires, “could you tell me which road to take?”
Wisely the cat asks, “Where are you going?”
Somewhat dismayed, Alice responds, “Oh, I don’t know where I’m going sir.”
“Well,” replied the cat, “if you don’t know where you are going, it really doesn’t matter which road you take.”

[Lykren]

3. Of Human Bondage is one of those books that improves after you've read it, when you start reflecting on how it moved you. Even though his prose style wasn't especially beautiful, the characters were sincerely drawn.

4. A Passage to India was a very interesting book, and slightly better written than Of Human Bondage. I enjoyed hearing about Mrs. Moore's perspective on the events. I think the mystical overtones he gives in his presentation of her are somehow the key to this novel. If there is such a thing as a key to a novel.

5. Ivanhoe felt like a typical adventure book, which doesn't really interest me, and I didn't care for the writing. At all.

6. Henry VI, I, II, and III were much more exciting than Ivanhoe!

7. King John is not one of my favorite history plays, and neither is

8. Henry V. Too bad Falstaff had to die!

9. Cymbeline was an interesting play with some beautiful passages, but I found myself slightly irritated by the wandering plot. Not my favorite of the Romances.

10. Coriolanus is my least-favorite Shakespeare.

11. Julius Caesar wasn't extremely interesting. I don't actually remember much of it, though. I guess that's not a positive sign, really.

12. Romeo and Juliet was fantastic, much better than what I remembered from my freshman year reading. But if I need romance, I'd rather read Austen.

13. The Oresteia didn't get much a reaction from me one or the way or the other. I suppose it was intriguing, had some lovely language in it. I suspect a second pass later on might do the trick.

14. The Theban plays were better, I felt. Oedipus the King really took irony to the max, and Antigone was great. Oedipus the Colonus was a little confusing for me though.

15. Medea was the best of the Greek lot. She's really a three-dimensional character.

16. Lysistrata. Didn't like my translation much. Other than that, funny.

and, currently reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In the Red Room by Paul Bowles (short story) That man can write the most disconcerting, yet fascinating stuff.
Shooting an Elephant George Orwell If this man had written the phone book I would read it. My favorites were "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such Were the Joys," and "A Hanging," followed by "The Prevention of Literature," "Charles Dickens," "Politics v. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," "Reflections on Gandhi." I would hope it goes without saying that of course I love "Shooting an Elephant" and "Politics and the English Language." The former is on of my very favorite essays ever.
Lost Paradise Cees Nooteboom This is a short novel, but one I keep returning to in my thoughts. I recommend it.

[Bibliophile79]

January
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde 12/24/12 - 01/02/13 ***
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick 1/02 - 1/03 *** ½
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/03 - 1/07 *** ½
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/07 - 1/10 ***
Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/10 - 1/13 *** ½
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/13 - 1/14 ***
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion 1/22 - 1/24 ****
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris 1/24 - 1/27 ****
Room by Emma Donoghue 1/28 - 1/29 **

February
Lust for Life by Irving Stone 1/29 - 2/6 **
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin 2/6 - 2/22 ****
Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini 2/23 - 2/26 ***

March
The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews 2/26 - 3/2 ****
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 3/2 - 3/6 ****
World's End by T.C. Boyle 3/6 - 3/12 ****
Summerland by Michael Chabon 3/12 - 3/15 ****
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 3/18 - 3/20 ****
John Adams by David McCullough 3/21 - 3/30 ****

April
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 4/3 - 4/9 ** 1/2
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson 4/9 - 4/12 ** 1/2
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/12 - 4/17 *****
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony 4/17 - 4/24 **
Son of Danse Macabre by Bryce Wilson 4/24 - 4/27 *****
Looking for Alaska by John Green 4/27 - 4/29 **

May
Duma Key by Stephen King 4/29 - 5/9 **
Inferno by Dan Brown 5/22 - 5/27 ***
The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard 5/27 - 5/30 ****

June
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell 5/30 - 6/5 ***
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin 6/6 - 6/18 *****
The Detective by Jonathan L. Howard 6/18 - 6/22 *** 1/2
The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard 6/23 - 6/28 ****

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

7. And Justice for Some by Wendy Murphy

8. Written on the Skin: An Australian Forensic Casebook by Liz Porter

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

7. And Justice for Some by Wendy Murphy

8. Written on the Skin: An Australian Forensic Casebook by Liz Porter

9. And Then the Darkness by Sue Williams

[JuniperWoolf]

Fashion Beast - Alan Moore
Frankenstein - Mary Shelly (again, but this is the first time I picked up on the idea that Frankenstein is gay so it was a new experience for me)
Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge (I shot the albatross!)
Manfred - Lord Byron
Some Wordsworth
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell - William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience - William Blake
Rape of the Lock - Alexander Pope
Goblin Market - Christina Rossetti
A Song of Ice and Fire - G.R.R.M.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
____________________________________________
Bluebeard - Charles Perrault: love the gore, hate the morals.
A Perfect, Gentle Knight - Kit Pearson: I read it for a Canadian lit class. Like most Canadian lit it was like a drink of lukewarm water.
The Magician - W. Somerset Maugham: this one was shockingly relevant to my interests, and I liked it immensely.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

7. And Justice for Some by Wendy Murphy

8. Written on the Skin: An Australian Forensic Casebook by Liz Porter

9. And Then the Darkness by Sue Williams

10. Inside Their Minds: Australian Criminals by Rochelle Jackson

[Desolation]

1. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (7/10)
2. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare (8/10)
3. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (10/10)
4. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare (8/10)
5. Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (9/10)
6. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon (8/10)
7. Othello by William Shakespeare (10/10)
8. On the Road by Jack Kerouac (not as good as I remember it, but 8/10 for the memories)
9. The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac (7/10)
10. The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac (9/10)
11. The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (9/10)
12. Underworld by Don DeLillo (10/10)

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10
Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.

The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In the Red Room by Paul Bowles (short story) That man can write the most disconcerting, yet fascinating stuff.
Shooting an Elephant George Orwell If this man had written the phone book I would read it. My favorites were "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such Were the Joys," and "A Hanging," followed by "The Prevention of Literature," "Charles Dickens," "Politics v. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," "Reflections on Gandhi." I would hope it goes without saying that of course I love "Shooting an Elephant" and "Politics and the English Language." The former is on of my very favorite essays ever.
Lost Paradise Cees Nooteboom This is a short novel, but one I keep returning to in my thoughts. I recommend it.
I Hunt Killers Barry Lyga A YA novel about a young man whose father is a notorious serial killer. Basically a fairly light read, but it nevertheless ponders what values of our parents we choose to keep and how we are shaped by them-and how sometimes we fight that when the parenting has been really, really bad.
Divergent Veronica Roth Another YA book, this one about a dystopian society set sometime in the future.
Code Orange Caroline B. Cooney Yet another YA novel. This one boasts an extremely likable protagonist, an easy-going high school kid whose suddenly faced with his own mortality and danger to his beloved New York City.

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

7. And Justice for Some by Wendy Murphy

8. Written on the Skin: An Australian Forensic Casebook by Liz Porter

9. And Then the Darkness by Sue Williams

10. Inside Their Minds: Australian Criminals by Rochelle Jackson

11. Beyond Bad: the Life and Crimes of Katherine Knight, Australia's Hannibal by Sandra Lee

[Snowqueen]

My list so far..

Faust by Ivan Turgenev

Hamlet by Shakespeare

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchells

All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

The Unbearable Bassington by H. H. Munro

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

[JuniperWoolf]

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

You should try the Humphrey Cobb WWI Paths of Glory instead, although I bet the movie's better. "The paths of glory lead but to the grave."

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

[Bibliophile79]

January
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde 12/24/12 - 01/02/13 ***
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick 1/02 - 1/03 *** ½
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/03 - 1/07 *** ½
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/07 - 1/10 ***
Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/10 - 1/13 *** ½
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/13 - 1/14 ***
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion 1/22 - 1/24 ****
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris 1/24 - 1/27 ****
Room by Emma Donoghue 1/28 - 1/29 **

February
Lust for Life by Irving Stone 1/29 - 2/6 **
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin 2/6 - 2/22 ****
Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini 2/23 - 2/26 ***

March
The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews 2/26 - 3/2 ****
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 3/2 - 3/6 ****
World's End by T.C. Boyle 3/6 - 3/12 ****
Summerland by Michael Chabon 3/12 - 3/15 ****
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 3/18 - 3/20 ****
John Adams by David McCullough 3/21 - 3/30 ****

April
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 4/3 - 4/9 ** 1/2
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson 4/9 - 4/12 ** 1/2
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/12 - 4/17 *****
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony 4/17 - 4/24 **
Son of Danse Macabre by Bryce Wilson 4/24 - 4/27 *****
Looking for Alaska by John Green 4/27 - 4/29 **

May
Duma Key by Stephen King 4/29 - 5/9 **
Inferno by Dan Brown 5/22 - 5/27 ***
The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard 5/27 - 5/30 ****

June
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell 5/30 - 6/5 ***
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin 6/6 - 6/18 *****
The Detective by Jonathan L. Howard 6/18 - 6/22 *** 1/2
The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard 6/23 - 6/28 ****

August
Shogun by James Clavell 6/28 - 8/5 **** 1/2

[Paulclem]

January
The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde 12/24/12 - 01/02/13 ***
The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick 1/02 - 1/03 *** ½
Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/03 - 1/07 *** ½
Beautiful Darkness by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/07 - 1/10 ***
Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/10 - 1/13 *** ½
Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl 1/13 - 1/14 ***
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion 1/22 - 1/24 ****
Then We Came To The End by Joshua Ferris 1/24 - 1/27 ****
Room by Emma Donoghue 1/28 - 1/29 **

February
Lust for Life by Irving Stone 1/29 - 2/6 **
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin 2/6 - 2/22 ****
Touching the Surface by Kimberly Sabatini 2/23 - 2/26 ***

March
The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Greg Matthews 2/26 - 3/2 ****
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote 3/2 - 3/6 ****
World's End by T.C. Boyle 3/6 - 3/12 ****
Summerland by Michael Chabon 3/12 - 3/15 ****
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 3/18 - 3/20 ****
John Adams by David McCullough 3/21 - 3/30 ****

April
Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 4/3 - 4/9 ** 1/2
The Angel Experiment by James Patterson 4/9 - 4/12 ** 1/2
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 4/12 - 4/17 *****
A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony 4/17 - 4/24 **
Son of Danse Macabre by Bryce Wilson 4/24 - 4/27 *****
Looking for Alaska by John Green 4/27 - 4/29 **

May
Duma Key by Stephen King 4/29 - 5/9 **
Inferno by Dan Brown 5/22 - 5/27 ***
The Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard 5/27 - 5/30 ****

June
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell 5/30 - 6/5 ***
A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin 6/6 - 6/18 *****
The Detective by Jonathan L. Howard 6/18 - 6/22 *** 1/2
The Fear Institute by Jonathan L. Howard 6/23 - 6/28 ****

August
Shogun by James Clavell 6/28 - 8/5 **** 1/2

Hmmm. My question is - "What are you up to every other month that your reading rate goes down so much?" :lol:

[mona amon]

11. Changing Places by David Lodge 4/10
12. Ann Veronica by H G Wells 5/10
13. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) 7/10 - A really good old fashioned murder mystery.
14. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien 7/10 - Probably would have enjoyed it more when I was a lot younger, what with all the goblins and elves and dwarves and such, but on the whole I liked it.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

Slaughter House Five. by kurt Vonnegut.
A strange tale of time travel, alien abduction and the Dresden bombing. I haven't read anything else of his, but thought it was written in a -look how clever I am and never mind the story, style. I enjoyed it all the same. 7.5/10

[mona amon]

15. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James - 6.5/10

Not up to James's usual standard, I thought. His style is really difficult, something I never realized when reading Portrait of a Lady and The Bostonians because in those novels his convoluted sentences seem intricate and beautiful while here they are just tedious and annoying and the beauty is rather thin on the ground. It has a sort of conventional Faustian pact plot where the principal characters sacrifice their moral integrity for the sake of material gains and we predict correctly that it is not going to end well, but I feel James was not able to carry off the necessary moral ambiguity in any interesting way, nor did he bring out for us sufficiently the tragedy of the ultimate smash up, something he's usually so good at.

[kiki1982]

Something Fresh/New by PG Wodehouse.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil A Bombay addict introduces us to a variety of characters associated with an opium den through the 80s and 90s. Their lives are traced through their stories, which are mainly tragic. Thayil seems unnecessarily brutal in this book, which reminded me of 70s pulp novels. There is also a lack of female characterisation, despite the presence of Dimple who is referred to as a woman throughout the book, and seems to represent what female views are expressed, but who is a eunuch.

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In the Red Room by Paul Bowles (short story) That man can write the most disconcerting, yet fascinating stuff.
Shooting an Elephant George Orwell If this man had written the phone book I would read it. My favorites were "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such Were the Joys," and "A Hanging," followed by "The Prevention of Literature," "Charles Dickens," "Politics v. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," "Reflections on Gandhi." I would hope it goes without saying that of course I love "Shooting an Elephant" and "Politics and the English Language." The former is on of my very favorite essays ever.
Lost Paradise Cees Nooteboom This is a short novel, but one I keep returning to in my thoughts. I recommend it.
I Hunt Killers Barry Lyga A YA novel about a young man whose father is a notorious serial killer. Basically a fairly light read, but it nevertheless ponders what values of our parents we choose to keep and how we are shaped by them-and how sometimes we fight that when the parenting has been really, really bad.
Divergent Veronica Roth Another YA book, this one about a dystopian society set sometime in the future.
Code Orange Caroline B. Cooney Yet another YA novel. This one boasts an extremely likable protagonist, an easy-going high school kid whose suddenly faced with his own mortality and danger to his beloved New York City.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes
Waiter, A Bock by Guy de Maupassant (short story)

[mona amon]

16. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis - 6/10 It was pretty good, and although it contains naiads, dryads, dwarves, fauns, satyrs, Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins, they mostly appear only in lists like this and do not have much to do with the action, so it was OK. :D I didn't enjoy it as much as The Magician's Nephew, my only other Narnia book and a book that I really fell in love with, but I was a kid when I read it so I guess that accounts for it.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

Slaughter House Five. by kurt Vonnegut.
A strange tale of time travel, alien abduction and the Dresden bombing. I haven't read anything else of his, but thought it was written in a -look how clever I am and never mind the story, style. I enjoyed it all the same. 7.5/10

Life and Fate By Vassily Grossman.

Chose this after seeing Paulclem's comments. Too big to really grasp, like a 20th century War and Peace set around the battle for Stalingrad. Grossman is saying that however much the great Monolithic states of Germany and Russia try to control every aspect of their citizen's lives and thoughts, (and their reach extends even into cut off front line bunkers) there is always refuge to be found in the tiny acts of kindness and connections between individuals. And that is what really makes a society. 7.5/10

[prendrelemick]

[QUOTE=prendrelemick;1237618]The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

Slaughter House Five. by kurt Vonnegut.
A strange tale of time travel, alien abduction and the Dresden bombing. I haven't read anything else of his, but thought it was written in a -look how clever I am and never mind the story, style. I enjoyed it all the same. 7.5/10

Life and Fate By Vassily Grossman.

Chose this after seeing Paulclem's comments. Too big to really grasp, like a 20th century War and Peace set around the battle for Stalingrad. Grossman is saying that however much the great Monolithic states of Germany and Russia try to control every aspect of their citizen's lives and thoughts, (and their reach extends even into cut off front line bunkers) there is always refuge to be found in the tiny acts of kindness and connections between individuals. And that is what really makes a society. 7.5/10

Night and Day. by irginia Wool. (and my keyboard is aulty again)

A supposed romance by someone who is too interllectual and has too much to say to write a good one. It 'elt 'ery 'ery long. 6.5/10

[Babyguile]

I'm not going to rate books, but if I feel compelled to make comments on them I will do so.

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I thought the sentimental melodrama of the third part was a chore to read, but found everything before that to be exceptional.

2. How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
Unintelligent analyses from someone with a very juvenile sense of the world. Generalisations heaped upon generalisations. No suprise as dumb books sell big. She is arrogant enough to cast aspersions on feminist academics in the introduction, before commencing four hundred pages of crass ranting. A large part of her analytic strategy is to judge the value of all female activity on whether men do them too, underlined at the end of the book when she declares, 'I just want to be one of the guys, but with really good hair'. As for the comedy, her main technique was to use hyperbolic similes that had the sophistication of a child. I might have found some passages funny had I read the book, but listening to it in audio format made it seem like a bad stand-up routine.

3. Hard Times by Charles Dickens
My impression is that Dickens had a lot he wanted to say in this novel and, at only 288 pages, he had a very short amount of time in which to say it. The result was that the characters were placed efficiently into appropriate archetpyes, but they were not given the time to be fleshed out. David Copperfield shows how well he could write characters. Logic is telling me I should stick to reading his longer books if I want a really engaging plot and cast of characters.

4. Delusions of Gender: the Real Science Behind Sex Difference by Cordelia Fine
In some passages, this book blew my mind and challenged my perceptions in the extreme, and I'm a feminist. Logically, everyone should read this book; even the best of us has a level of subconscious sexism within, and this book makes the reader confront theirs head-on. Scientific thoroughness may be interpreted as repetitiveness by some readers, as she painstakingly tests her arguments from all possible angles, often guiding us to the same conclusions multiple times within a chapter. For me, an unwanted effect of this book is to disempower the individual. For instance, she exposes the futility of gender-neutral parenting, and it's very disheartening to read. Yet she concludes happily that, unbelievably (scarcasm), genes are not defining, and hormones are not gospel! I blame the whole mess on capitalism.

5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
I liked the first part more than the long middle section. The conflicts with his family, the struggle for indentity in school, the clash of faiths, and colonialism are all very current themes. The middle section was, to me, an overwritten, tiresome slog. We know Pi survives because he wrote the account; there is no tension or suspense. Instead, Yann asks us to finish his book under the assumption that we, as readers, are unenlightened atheists who need to reach the end of his book to find hope and faith in our cold, rational lives. Yann Martel is one of those religious people who cannot tolerate or understand people who have no faith. It's a childrens's book. One good thing it would do is flush out all the anthropomorphic mush filling kids' heads as a result of too much children's television.

6. Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

7. And Justice for Some by Wendy Murphy

8. Written on the Skin: An Australian Forensic Casebook by Liz Porter

9. And Then the Darkness by Sue Williams

10. Inside Their Minds: Australian Criminals by Rochelle Jackson

11. Beyond Bad: the Life and Crimes of Katherine Knight, Australia's Hannibal by Sandra Lee

12. The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature by Elizabeth Kantor

13. Contemporary Literature: the Basics by Suman Gupta

14. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil A Bombay addict introduces us to a variety of characters associated with an opium den through the 80s and 90s. Their lives are traced through their stories, which are mainly tragic. Thayil seems unnecessarily brutal in this book, which reminded me of 70s pulp novels. There is also a lack of female characterisation, despite the presence of Dimple who is referred to as a woman throughout the book, and seems to represent what female views are expressed, but who is a eunuch.

A Dark Summer in Bordeaux by Philip Massie. A slow paced murder/ thriller whose interest lies in the response of the characters t to the Nazi takeover of France in WW2 and the Vichy government.

Uplift Trilogy Book 2 by David Brin Written in the 1980's, this hard science book has a mixed dolphin/ chimpanzee/ human crew searching an alien water world from a hidden spacecraft after needing repairs following the discovery of an ancient alien artefact and attack by other galactic members. An enjoyable read.

[prendrelemick]

[QUOTE=prendrelemick;1241995][QUOTE=prendrelemick;1237618]The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

Slaughter House Five. by kurt Vonnegut.
A strange tale of time travel, alien abduction and the Dresden bombing. I haven't read anything else of his, but thought it was written in a -look how clever I am and never mind the story, style. I enjoyed it all the same. 7.5/10

Life and Fate By Vassily Grossman.

Chose this after seeing Paulclem's comments. Too big to really grasp, like a 20th century War and Peace set around the battle for Stalingrad. Grossman is saying that however much the great Monolithic states of Germany and Russia try to control every aspect of their citizen's lives and thoughts, (and their reach extends even into cut off front line bunkers) there is always refuge to be found in the tiny acts of kindness and connections between individuals. And that is what really makes a society. 7.5/10

Night and Day. by irginia Wool. (and my keyboard is aulty again)

A supposed romance by someone who is too interllectual and has too much to say to write a good one. It 'elt 'ery 'ery long. 6.5/10[



Shakespeare. by Bill Bryson.

Excellent read. A biography of the Bard, Bryson sorts the wheat from the chaff. He tells us exactly what is really known and provable about him (very little) and what is just speculation and myth. Then he does a bit more, he tracks the myths down to their origin and uncovers the wishful thinking and predjudices that led to them, and the suprising alacrity with which learned men, who should've known better, took them up. Very readable and good fun. 8/10

[Paulclem]

The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil A Bombay addict introduces us to a variety of characters associated with an opium den through the 80s and 90s. Their lives are traced through their stories, which are mainly tragic. Thayil seems unnecessarily brutal in this book, which reminded me of 70s pulp novels. There is also a lack of female characterisation, despite the presence of Dimple who is referred to as a woman throughout the book, and seems to represent what female views are expressed, but who is a eunuch.
A Dark Summer in Bordeaux by Philip Massie. A slow paced murder/ thriller whose interest lies in the response of the characters t to the Nazi takeover of France in WW2 and the Vichy government.

Uplift Trilogy Book 2 by David Brin Written in the 1980's, this hard science book has a mixed dolphin/ chimpanzee/ human crew searching an alien water world from a hidden spacecraft after needing repairs following the discovery of an ancient alien artefact and attack by other galactic members. An enjoyable read.

Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski A book full of stories and opinions and observations. It is funny and often ghastly, but Bukowski's honesty and outsider perspective makes him, overall, a sympathetic character in a depressing and often brutal world.

[Paulclem]

1) The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

2) Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

3) Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

4) Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

5) No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

6) All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

7) Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

8) A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

9) The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

10) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

11) The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

12) The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

13) The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

14) Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

15) Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

16) The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

17) Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil A Bombay addict introduces us to a variety of characters associated with an opium den through the 80s and 90s. Their lives are traced through their stories, which are mainly tragic. Thayil seems unnecessarily brutal in this book, which reminded me of 70s pulp novels. There is also a lack of female characterisation, despite the presence of Dimple who is referred to as a woman throughout the book, and seems to represent what female views are expressed, but who is a eunuch.

18) A Dark Summer in Bordeaux by Philip Massie. A slow paced murder/ thriller whose interest lies in the response of the characters t to the Nazi takeover of France in WW2 and the Vichy government.

19) Uplift Trilogy Book 2 by David Brin Written in the 1980's, this hard science book has a mixed dolphin/ chimpanzee/ human crew searching an alien water world from a hidden spacecraft after needing repairs following the discovery of an ancient alien artefact and attack by other galactic members. An enjoyable read.

20) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski A book full of stories and opinions and observations. It is funny and often ghastly, but Bukowski's honesty and outsider perspective makes him, overall, a sympathetic character in a depressing and often brutal world.

21) Tau Zero by Poul Anderson A hard science sci fi which follows an exploration team's attempt to colonise a planet, but which, with damaged engines, travel far further and longer into the universe. Anderson is good on the human stress and strains in the context of potentially catastrophic conditions.

[Paulclem]

1) The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

2) Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

3) Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

4) Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

5) No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

6) All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

7) Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

8) A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

9) The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

10) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

11) The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

12) The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

13) The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

14) Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

15) Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

16) The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

17) Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil A Bombay addict introduces us to a variety of characters associated with an opium den through the 80s and 90s. Their lives are traced through their stories, which are mainly tragic. Thayil seems unnecessarily brutal in this book, which reminded me of 70s pulp novels. There is also a lack of female characterisation, despite the presence of Dimple who is referred to as a woman throughout the book, and seems to represent what female views are expressed, but who is a eunuch.

18) A Dark Summer in Bordeaux by Philip Massie. A slow paced murder/ thriller whose interest lies in the response of the characters t to the Nazi takeover of France in WW2 and the Vichy government.

19) Uplift Trilogy Book 2 by David Brin Written in the 1980's, this hard science book has a mixed dolphin/ chimpanzee/ human crew searching an alien water world from a hidden spacecraft after needing repairs following the discovery of an ancient alien artefact and attack by other galactic members. An enjoyable read.

20) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski A book full of stories and opinions and observations. It is funny and often ghastly, but Bukowski's honesty and outsider perspective makes him, overall, a sympathetic character in a depressing and often brutal world.

21) Tau Zero by Poul Anderson A hard science sci fi which follows an exploration team's attempt to colonise a planet, but which, with damaged engines, travel far further and longer into the universe. Anderson is good on the human stress and strains in the context of potentially catastrophic conditions.

22) The Silent Land by Graham Joyce A ghost story set in the French Alps where two skiers are caught in an avalanche and survive to find the village they were staying in deserted. Well plotted and written with a predictable but enjoyable finish.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

Slaughter House Five. by kurt Vonnegut.
A strange tale of time travel, alien abduction and the Dresden bombing. I haven't read anything else of his, but thought it was written in a -look how clever I am and never mind the story, style. I enjoyed it all the same. 7.5/10

Life and Fate By Vassily Grossman.

Chose this after seeing Paulclem's comments. Too big to really grasp, like a 20th century War and Peace set around the battle for Stalingrad. Grossman is saying that however much the great Monolithic states of Germany and Russia try to control every aspect of their citizen's lives and thoughts, (and their reach extends even into cut off front line bunkers) there is always refuge to be found in the tiny acts of kindness and connections between individuals. And that is what really makes a society. 7.5/10

Night and Day. by irginia Wool. (and my keyboard is aulty again)

A supposed romance by someone who is too interllectual and has too much to say to write a good one. It 'elt 'ery 'ery long. 6.5/10[



Shakespeare. by Bill Bryson.

Excellent read. A biography of the Bard, Bryson sorts the wheat from the chaff. He tells us exactly what is really known and provable about him (very little) and what is just speculation and myth. Then he does a bit more, he tracks the myths down to their origin and uncovers the wishful thinking and predjudices that led to them, and the suprising alacrity with which learned men, who should've known better, took them up. Very readable and good fun. 8/10

Hotel du Lac. by Anita Brookner

Edith, a writer of romantic novels is in disgrace and is persuaded to take a holiday at the exclusive Hotel du Lac, where she meets characters of a certain type and class. She recounts her experiences and pours out her inner thoughts in letters (not intended for posting) to her lover.

It is well written but tends to meander aimlessly - as does Edith. Her lively interllect and wicked wit is only revealed in her letters, and is unsuspected by almost all who meet her. To students of Lit this would be a classic peice of work, mood, style,plot and character all merge and complement each other perfectly. But that means there is no edge. 6.5/10


The Colour Purple. by Alice Walker.

Life in the deep south is grim for Celie a black girl who has absolutely no power whatsoever. She is beneath the notice of the local whites, but has plenty of abuse from men of her own race. Like the Anita Brookner novel above, we are privy to her inner thoughts through her letter writing - to God and her sister, but unlike the above, the language is completely open and unsophisticated. Her life does eventually get better as the years pass, she endures and learns and overcomes. A very good read. 7.5/10

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In the Red Room by Paul Bowles (short story) That man can write the most disconcerting, yet fascinating stuff.
Shooting an Elephant George Orwell If this man had written the phone book I would read it. My favorites were "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such Were the Joys," and "A Hanging," followed by "The Prevention of Literature," "Charles Dickens," "Politics v. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," "Reflections on Gandhi." I would hope it goes without saying that of course I love "Shooting an Elephant" and "Politics and the English Language." The former is on of my very favorite essays ever.
Lost Paradise Cees Nooteboom This is a short novel, but one I keep returning to in my thoughts. I recommend it.
I Hunt Killers Barry Lyga A YA novel about a young man whose father is a notorious serial killer. Basically a fairly light read, but it nevertheless ponders what values of our parents we choose to keep and how we are shaped by them-and how sometimes we fight that when the parenting has been really, really bad.
Divergent Veronica Roth Another YA book, this one about a dystopian society set sometime in the future.
Code Orange Caroline B. Cooney Yet another YA novel. This one boasts an extremely likable protagonist, an easy-going high school kid whose suddenly faced with his own mortality and danger to his beloved New York City.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes
Waiter, A Bock by Guy de Maupassant (short story)
On Writing by Stephen King A surprisingly tender, thoughtful memoir-cum-how-to on writing from the king of horror.

[Paulclem]

1) The Damned United by David Peace - A football novel based upon real people and events in the football league in 1970s England written in a stream of consciousness style with intercut flashbacks.

2) Snuff Terry Pratchett - Commander Vimes brings Goblin equality to the country.

3) Pure - An engineer from Normandy is commissioned by a French Minister to dig out and remove the bones and bodies that have built up and begun affecting the air in the cemetery of Les Innocents in 18th century Paris. (The site of modern day Les Halles).

4) Life and Fate by Vassily Grossmann. Grossman's epic, banned after it was written, has been compared to Tolstoy's War and Peace. I would agree that the novel, which spans the months during and after the fight for Stalingrad in WW2, is a brilliant depiction the life of soldiers, commisars, civilians, old Bolsheviks, Nazi commanders, prisoners and scientists. It details the lives, loves, characters, thoughts, flaws and pressures of living under Stalin's regime.

5) No Country For Old Men by Cormac Mcarthy. A bleak, violent but philosophical novel that challenges the effectiveness of the cowboy/ American icon of the self sufficient, capable and honourable man. The psychopath Chigurh survives the course of the novel with his bleak, nihilistic belief in predestination.

6) All The Pretty Horses by Cormac Mcarthy. Not as bleak as No Country, or Blood Meridian, but full of brilliant landscape evocations of Mexico with a ripping story. I've never ridden a horse, and I am unlikely to, (though you might be fooled into thinking I had with my bandy legs), but I enjoyed this almost mystical celebration of horses and their relation to people.

7) Eon by Greg Bear Interesting sci fi with good ideas and a story that keeps you engrossed to the end.

8) A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr Bernie Gunther - ex Berlin detective co-opted as an investigator into an organisation of judges looking into war crimes - is called upon to uncover and present the mass grave at Katyn Woods near Smolensk as a Soviet Russian war crime in order to boost Nazi standing abroad. Great plot, instructive historical context and ripping thriller. I really enjoyed this one.

9) The Odin Mission by James Holland. Routine WW2 thriller, though I liked finding out details of the Norwegian campaign.

10) Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. Excellent sci fi exploring the unknowableness of an alien nature and its attempts to connect with scientists studying it on Solaris.

11) The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. Morris claims in the blurb that everything you think you know about the Norman Conquest is wrong, and so it proves to be. Harold wasn't the rightful King - he was just in a powerful enough position to take the crown before losing it to William. An interesting and enlightening read about the Norman Conquest.

12) The Winter King by Thomas Penn. I decided to read this because I knew very little about Henry VII and so much more about Henry VIII. What a brilliant example of a king! Grasping, exploitative and paranoid. No wonder his son turned out as he did. This was another interesting volume, and definitely one to fuel latent republican tendencies.

13) The Penny Falls by Mark Bastable. This book, by our own poster Mark, is funny, packed with interesting observations and has a plot with more twists than that twisty thing Blackadder used to go on about. The narrative structure is complex and interesting, and the characters are vivid and well realised. If you've read any of Mark's comments and conversations on the forum, then you'll recognise his voice in here too - from his use of Amsterdam as a setting, (he's referred to living there on these boards), to the humour. "I'd rather nail my scrotum to a passing train" comes to mind. A very enjoyable read.

14) Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys. A fantastic premise - Alien artefact discovered on moon keeps killing those who try to explore it - turns out to be a disappointing novel full of psychobabble masquerading as a reflection on death. The exploration part - when it comes - is the weakest part of the book.

15) Sun Diver by David Brin A hard science sci fi with an intergalactic civilisations, ETs, spaceflight, missions into the sun to meet new ETs, murder, sabotage and tech. An enjoyable sci fi with twists.

16) The Space Merchants by Pohl and Kornbluth A top advertising exec experiences life as a consumer and revolutionary in this grungy dystopian vision of corporate power. It's vision is relevant and very interesting given it was written in 1952.

17) Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil A Bombay addict introduces us to a variety of characters associated with an opium den through the 80s and 90s. Their lives are traced through their stories, which are mainly tragic. Thayil seems unnecessarily brutal in this book, which reminded me of 70s pulp novels. There is also a lack of female characterisation, despite the presence of Dimple who is referred to as a woman throughout the book, and seems to represent what female views are expressed, but who is a eunuch.

18) A Dark Summer in Bordeaux by Philip Massie. A slow paced murder/ thriller whose interest lies in the response of the characters t to the Nazi takeover of France in WW2 and the Vichy government.

19) Uplift Trilogy Book 2 by David Brin Written in the 1980's, this hard science book has a mixed dolphin/ chimpanzee/ human crew searching an alien water world from a hidden spacecraft after needing repairs following the discovery of an ancient alien artefact and attack by other galactic members. An enjoyable read.

20) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski A book full of stories and opinions and observations. It is funny and often ghastly, but Bukowski's honesty and outsider perspective makes him, overall, a sympathetic character in a depressing and often brutal world.

21) Tau Zero by Poul Anderson A hard science sci fi which follows an exploration team's attempt to colonise a planet, but which, with damaged engines, travel far further and longer into the universe. Anderson is good on the human stress and strains in the context of potentially catastrophic conditions.

22) The Silent Land by Graham Joyce A ghost story set in the French Alps where two skiers are caught in an avalanche and survive to find the village they were staying in deserted. Well plotted and written with a predictable but enjoyable finish.

23) Everest: The Hard Way by Chris Bonnington An exciting chronicle of the British 1975 attempt on Everest detailing the organisation, effort, ingenuity and danger involved. One climber died on the attempt along with a porter, but it is a sobering thought that a number of climbers from the expedition went on to become Everest casualties or to die in other mountaineering ventures.

24) Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov An intriguing low key comedy/ thriller based in the Ukraine. A pre-death obituary writer gradually discovers that his work seems to tally with the death toll of notable political and social figures, whilst he continues to look after a mafia member's child, employ a new nanny and nurture his pet penguin.

[prendrelemick]

The Prophecy by S J Parris. 7/10

The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. 6/10

The Suppliant Women by Aeschylus 7/10

The Persians by Aeschylus. 7/10

The Widows Secret by Brian Thompson. 7/10 (Book club choice)

Prometheus Bound. by Aeschylus

The Lost World. by Arthur Conan Doyle. 7/10

King John. By Shakespeare

The Voyage Out. By Virginia Woolf.

Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna. 7/10

Engleby. by Sebastian Faulks. 8/10

Penny Falls. By Mark Bastable. 8/10

Interesting and well written. A very unusual story of brotherly relationships and obligations. At his best when he makes us laugh

The Epic of Gilgamesh 7/10

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack:
25 Classic and Modern Science Fiction Stories.
Arthur C. Clarke, Nancy Kress, George Zebrowski, Neal Asher, Pamela Sargent, Philip K. Dick, Mary A. Turzillo, C.M. Kornbluth, Samuel R. Delany

A couple of stories I'd read before, a couple of good ones and some that weren't up to much .6/10

Paths of Glory. By Jeffrey Archer.
The semi-fictional story of George Mallory, Mountaineer and Hero of the British Empire. It should've been really good, but it wasn't. I suspect a factual biography of this remarkable man would be more exciting and interesting. 6.5/10

The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
Tales of derring a do, a hoodlum is reformed by the love of a good woman. 6/10

Elizabeth and her German Garden. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
Wonderful, funny, semi autobiographical woman's journal. I have posted a review on the Book Review Thread. An unprecedented 9 out of 10.

The John Carter of Mars series. by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, James Bond and all that sort of stuff - only even more over the top. Excellent yarn for a twelve year old, I quite enjoyed it 7/10

The Time Machine. by HG Wells . You know the plot . 7/10

The Enchanted April. by Elizabeth Von Arnim.
4 women heal themselves by taking a holiday in a wisteria clad castle in Italy. 7.5/10

Lady Chatterley's Lover. by DH Lawrence.

Lady Chatterley rejects the intellectual and empty life with her crippled husband, to find true love through some down to earth shagging with Mellors the gamekeeper. 8/10

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. by Rachel Joyce

A man walks 600 miles on a whim/act of faith.
I really liked this one, uncluttered and moving . The author instictively knows what to include and what to leave out - A much underated skill. Her characters are believable, their thoughts and outlook are those of real people. So you care. 8.5/10 .

Slaughter House Five. by kurt Vonnegut.
A strange tale of time travel, alien abduction and the Dresden bombing. I haven't read anything else of his, but thought it was written in a -look how clever I am and never mind the story, style. I enjoyed it all the same. 7.5/10

Life and Fate By Vassily Grossman.

Chose this after seeing Paulclem's comments. Too big to really grasp, like a 20th century War and Peace set around the battle for Stalingrad. Grossman is saying that however much the great Monolithic states of Germany and Russia try to control every aspect of their citizen's lives and thoughts, (and their reach extends even into cut off front line bunkers) there is always refuge to be found in the tiny acts of kindness and connections between individuals. And that is what really makes a society. 7.5/10

Night and Day. by irginia Wool. (and my keyboard is aulty again)

A supposed romance by someone who is too interllectual and has too much to say to write a good one. It 'elt 'ery 'ery long. 6.5/10[



Shakespeare. by Bill Bryson.

Excellent read. A biography of the Bard, Bryson sorts the wheat from the chaff. He tells us exactly what is really known and provable about him (very little) and what is just speculation and myth. Then he does a bit more, he tracks the myths down to their origin and uncovers the wishful thinking and predjudices that led to them, and the suprising alacrity with which learned men, who should've known better, took them up. Very readable and good fun. 8/10

Hotel du Lac. by Anita Brookner

Edith, a writer of romantic novels is in disgrace and is persuaded to take a holiday at the exclusive Hotel du Lac, where she meets characters of a certain type and class. She recounts her experiences and pours out her inner thoughts in letters (not intended for posting) to her lover.

It is well written but tends to meander aimlessly - as does Edith. Her lively interllect and wicked wit is only revealed in her letters, and is unsuspected by almost all who meet her. To students of Lit this would be a classic peice of work, mood, style,plot and character all merge and complement each other perfectly. But that means there is no edge. 6.5/10


The Colour Purple. by Alice Walker.

Life in the deep south is grim for Celie a black girl who has absolutely no power whatsoever. She is beneath the notice of the local whites, but has plenty of abuse from men of her own race. Like the Anita Brookner novel above, we are privy to her inner thoughts through her letter writing - to God and her sister, but unlike the above, the language is completely open and unsophisticated. Her life does eventually get better as the years pass, she endures and learns and overcomes. A very good read. 7.5/10


The Dinner by Hermann Koch

Two couples meet for dinner to discus what to do about their children, who have been beating up homeless people. That is the bare bones of the story, but this book is a fascinating study of group dynamics as the characters vie with each other to be heard, or to dominate - or just try to cope with the resturant manager. Our narrator - one of the group - slowly reveals himself as one of the most unreliable witness you'll ever experience in a book. It is this device that gives it its edge, you can never be sure and settled in your opinion of the characters.

This was not an enjoyable read, but a fascinating one and I can't help but admire the way Koch manipulates the reader. 7/10

[qimissung]

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spartk
Teacher Man by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In the Red Room by Paul Bowles (short story) That man can write the most disconcerting, yet fascinating stuff.
Shooting an Elephant George Orwell If this man had written the phone book I would read it. My favorites were "How the Poor Die" and "Such, Such Were the Joys," and "A Hanging," followed by "The Prevention of Literature," "Charles Dickens," "Politics v. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels," "Some Thoughts on the Common Toad," "Reflections on Gandhi." I would hope it goes without saying that of course I love "Shooting an Elephant" and "Politics and the English Language." The former is on of my very favorite essays ever.
Lost Paradise Cees Nooteboom This is a short novel, but one I keep returning to in my thoughts. I recommend it.
I Hunt Killers Barry Lyga A YA novel about a young man whose father is a notorious serial killer. Basically a fairly light read, but it nevertheless ponders what values of our parents we choose to keep and how we are shaped by them-and how sometimes we fight that when the parenting has been really, really bad.
Divergent Veronica Roth Another YA book, this one about a dystopian society set sometime in the future.
Code Orange Caroline B. Cooney Yet another YA novel. This one boasts an extremely likable protagonist, an easy-going high school kid whose suddenly faced with his own mortality and danger to his beloved New York City.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes
Waiter, A Bock by Guy de Maupassant (short story)
On Writing by Stephen King A surprisingly tender, thoughtful memoir-cum-how-to on writing from the king of horror.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (finished 1/2/2014)

[Scheherazade]

So, 2013 wasn't all that bad reading-wise but I fell short of my 52 books target:
1. The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin (S1) ~ 8/10

2. A Short Story of Tracktors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka (W1/N1) ~ 7/10

3. Decameron by Boccaccio (R11) ~ 8/10

4. Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (W2/S2) ~ 7/10

5. The Cider House Rules by John Irving ~ 9/10

6. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (W3/N2) ~ 6/10

7. The Bostonians by Henry James (S3) ~ 8/10

8. Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett (N3) ~ 7/10

9. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark (W4/S4) ~ 8/10

10. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (W5/S5) ~ 7/10 I was expecting this to be a rather tragic love story but Atwood has no time for romance, tragic or otherwise. And in a post-apocalyptic world, there is no time for romance either, anyhow... Only for memories.

11. The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham (N4) ~ 5/10 Felt utterly bored reading about the poor rich people. Almost like Gatsby, without its charms.

12. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (W6/S6) ~ 8/10 As good as Patchett's other book Bel Canto. A search for a missing colleague turns into a discovery of self in the middle of Amazon.

13. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers (W7/S7) ~ 10/10 Beyond doubt, she is one of my favourite authors. Touching, tragic and sad... So much so that it is funny.

14. The Honorary Consul by Graham Greene (S8) ~ 7/10

15. White Teeth by Zadie Smith (W8/S9) ~ 7/10

16. The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald (R1) ~ 9/10

17. The Sweet Thursday by Steinbeck (R2) ~ 9/10

18. Changing Places by David Lodge (N5) ~ 6/10

19. One of Ours by Willa Cather (W9/S10 ~ 4/10

20. Ann Veronica by HG Wells ~ 3/10

21. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh (S11) ~ 8/10

22. Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen (N6) ~ 8/10 Ideal summer read.

23. Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (N7) ~ 7/10

24. Paddy Clark, Ha Ha Ha! by Roddy Doyle (N8)~ 8/10

25. A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (N9) ~ 9/10

26. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway ~ 6/10

27. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides (S12) ~ 9/10

28. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (N10) ~ 8/10

29. Pygmalion GB Shaw (R3) ~ 9/10

30. Dolores Claibourne by Stephen King (S13) ~ 8/10

31. Tinkers by Paul Harding (N11/P) ~ 9/10

32. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy (N12) ~ 8/10

33. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (N13/P) ~ 7/10

34. The Reivers by Faulkner (P) ~ 9/10

35. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (N14)

36. 39. Sputnik, Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami (S16)

37. A Country Doctor’s Notebook by Bulgakov (S15) ~ 8/10

38. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman 7/10

39. I Should Have Stayed Home by Horace McCoy (S14) ~ 6/10[/I]

40. Crying Lot of 49 by Thomas Pynchon (N16) ~ 7/10

41. The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler (W11/S17) ~ 8/10

42. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene ~ 9/10

43. The Time Machine by HG Wells ~ 7/10

44. The Year of the Flood by Atwood (W10) - 5/10

46. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut ~ 8/10

47. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (N15/P)~ 5/10

48. Kafka On the Shore by Murakami ~ 10/10

49. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie ~ 8/10

[mona amon]

[/COLOR]I think I read only about a dozen. Let's see -

Copying all my previous posts on this thread and adding the ones I left out -

1. White Teeth by Zadie Smith. 6.5/10 It was a good book, but I've forgotten what I wanted to say about it. Really should take notes.
2. Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett. 9/10 Funny, tragic, endearing. Cannot imagine why people find it boring.
3. The Bostonians - Henry James 7/10 This was a really good reading experience. James is a genius!
4. A Room With a View - E M Forster (re-read) 6/10 I love E M forster, and this was a good book, though Howard's End and Passage to India were better.
5. Intruder in the Dust - William Faulkner. 7/10 Faulkner writes a murder mystery!:hurray: And it's a good one. I felt it was a bit repetitive and could have been cut down to an even shorter novel, or I'd have given it a higher rating.
6. Major Barbara - George Bernard Shaw (re-read). 8/10 Shaw at his argumentative best.
7. Bridget Jones Edge of Reason - Helen Fielding. 6/10 Like its predecessor, an engaging, entertaining fun read. :)

Uh oh, I see I've given Forster's novel and Bridget Jones the same rating. Stupid ratings...I never seem to get them right!

8. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf. 7/10 I really liked Mrs Dalloway, but reading this was mostly a chore! :sleep: The first part was boring boring boring...middle - sudden shock and surprise and all became haunting and beautiful...then again boring boring boring till - whew...the End.
9. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. 10/10 Wow! :shocked: Absolutely mind blowing! One of the best books I've ever read.
10. N-W by Zadie Smith - 3/10 - I liked White Teeth and On Beauty but this, her latest novel, was disappointing. She's lost none of her talent for writing, but she's evidently tried to experiment with form or something here, and it ends up being pointless and lackluster. Of course, that may be because it doesn't have much substance to start with, rather than the experimenting. I feel I've wasted my time.

11. Changing Places by David Lodge 4/10
12. Ann Veronica by H G Wells 5/10
13. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) 7/10 - A really good old fashioned murder mystery.
14. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien 7/10 - Probably would have enjoyed it more when I was a lot younger, what with all the goblins and elves and dwarves and such, but on the whole I liked it.

15. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James - 6.5/10 Not up to James's usual standard, I thought. His style is really difficult, something I never realized when reading Portrait of a Lady and The Bostonians because in those novels his convoluted sentences seem intricate and beautiful while here they are just tedious and annoying and the beauty is rather thin on the ground. It has a sort of conventional Faustian pact plot where the principal characters sacrifice their moral integrity for the sake of material gains and we predict correctly that it is not going to end well, but I feel James was not able to carry off the necessary moral ambiguity in any interesting way, nor did he bring out for us sufficiently the tragedy of the ultimate smash up, something he's usually so good at.

16. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis - 6/10 It was pretty good, and although it contains naiads, dryads, dwarves, fauns, satyrs, Cruels and Hags and Incubuses, Wraiths, Horrors, Efreets, Sprites, Orknies, Wooses, and Ettins, they mostly appear only in lists like this and do not have much to do with the action, so it was OK. :D I didn't enjoy it as much as The Magician's Nephew, my only other Narnia book and a book that I really fell in love with, but I was a kid when I read it so I guess that accounts for it.

17. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides - 10/10 - Strange, haunting, very beautiful. Flawless. This book was the big surprise of 2013.
18. The Year of the Flood by Margret Atwood - 5/10 - It was OK but not up to Atwood's usual standard.
19. The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer - I'm not rating this because from a literary point of view it is an absolute zero, but I found it interesting for other reasons, and intend to do a review of these four books sometime.

I think that's it - oh yes,

20. The Reivers by Faulkner= 9/10 - This book was more like Intruder in the Dust rather than the 10/10 books like Sound and the Fury and Absalom, but it was still very good.