Month: December 2008

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Other Uncategorized

To Be Read Challenge 2009

My ‘To Be Read’ (TBR) pile contains about 300 books at the moment, so this is a great challenge to force me to read a few that have been lurking at the bottom of the pile for a while!

The TBR challenge is to make a list of 12 books now, and then read them all in 2009 – the list CANNOT be changed after 31st December 2008.

My 2009 TBR challenge list is:

1. Going Out – Scarlett Thomas

2. Lamb in His Bosom – Caroline Miller

3. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

4. Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

5. The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields

6. When We Were Orphans – Kazuo Ishiguro

7. The Hiding Place – Trezza Azzopardi

8. The Secret History – Donna Tartt

9. Reading in the Dark – Seamus Deane

10. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon

11. Interpreter of Maladies – Jhumpa Lahiri

12. Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe

I’m not going to create an alternative list, as I do not want any excuse not to read any of the books on this list!

Categories
Books in Translation Other

Lost in Translation Reading Challenge

I read a few books in translation in 2008, but to encourage me to read a few more I’m going to join the Lost in Translation Reading Challenge.

The aim is to read six books in translation in 2009. Hopefully, I’ll manage a few extra on top, but I won’t commit to that at the moment!

The ones I’d like to read first are:

  1.  The Bride From Odessa by Edgardo Cozarinsky completed 27th January 2009
  2.  The Lost Estate by Alain Fournier completed 14th Febuary 2009
  3.  Blindness by Jose Saramago completed 5th March 2009
  4. The Book of Fathers by Miklos Vamos
  5. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  6. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larrson

7+ To be decided!

Categories
Recommended books

Paperchase – Marcel Theroux

 
Books Before Blogging Review
It has been about six months since I finished this book, and to be honest I don’t remember much about it. At the time I was unsure as to whether to award it 5 stars, as I knew that it contained nothing profound or inspiring. I did, however, love every minute of reading it. I couldn’t put it down, and carried it round with me as I did everything, creating extra time for reading so that I could finish it. The writing was simple, but the characters all came to life on the page.

It was a real page turner, with a clever ending. I’m still not sure whether it deserves five stars – I suppose that depends on your rating system. Should a book that grabs (and holds!) your attention completely be knocked down a star or two, just because you don’t remember much about it six months on? Is the point of books to entertain, or must they have such a profound effect on you that the characters are still buzzing round your head years later? In this case, I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and leave it with five stars.

I highly recommend this book, it was one of my favourites of 2008.

Categories
Booker Prize

Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood

Great Granny Webster was short listed for the Booker Prize in 1977.  It is the semi-autobiographical tale of successive generations of an aristocratic family. The story is told through the eyes of a teenage girl who is forced to live in her Great Grandmother’s crumbling mansion for two months. Whilst she ekes out her joyless existtance with her Great Grandmother she discovers the truth about her extraordinary family.

Unfortunately I was very disappointed with this book. It reads more like someone jotting down their family history than a proper novel. The characters are introduced through long descriptions, and fail to come alive. There was no plot driving it forward, so I quickly became bored. Luckily, it was a very short book, so I managed to make it to the end.

The humour was too subtle for me, as I didn’t find it amusing at all. I have no idea why this was short listed for the Booker Prize, and I won’t be rushing out to read any other books by Caroline Blackwood.

Disappointing.

Categories
Other

2nds Challenge 2009

I’ve decided to sign up to another challenge! The 2nds Challenge 2009, hosted by J. Kaye’s book blog. This one involves reading 12 books by authors that you have only read once.

There are lots of authors that I’m looking forward to reading more from. I’m not sure which books I’ll read yet, but my list of authors so far is:

  • 1. Rohinton Mistry
  • 2. Sarah Waters
  • 3. Robertson Davies
  • 4. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I’m sure it will be a really enjoyable challenge.

Update:

Books completed:

The Ghost by Robert Harris completed Feb 19th 2009

Categories
2000 - 2007 Booker Prize Orange Prize Recommended books

Fingersmith – Sarah Waters


This book was one of the oldest, unread residents of my book shelves. Although I wanted to read it, I kept putting it off as I had already seen the excellent BBC adaptation of it, and I don’t normally like reading books when I know the plot. So when the Orange Prize readers Yahoo group announced it was Sarah Waters month , I decided that this was the incentive I needed to finally take it off the shelf.

I’m really glad I did, as it is one of the best books I have ever read. It didn’t matter that I knew what was going to happen, as the writing was so vivid, that it took the story to a whole new level.

The pace was perfect, despite being 550 pages long, my interest was held throughout. I enjoyed reading this book so much that I was torn between the desire to read it, and not wanting it to come to an end.

It completely immerses you in Victorian England. I loved the way the story was told by the two orphan girls. Seeing everything from two different  perspectives was very clever, and added to the suspense.  The intricate details of the plot, and  all the twists and turns make this a very well constructed novel. It’s hard to describe the plot without giving some of it away, so I won’t try to. I just urge you to read it.

Highly recommended.

Winner of the CWA Ellis Peters Dagger for Historical Crime Fiction. Short listed for both the Orange and the Booker Prize.