Month: January 2011

The Spring 2011 Richard and Judy Book Club Titles Revealed

Post author By Jackie
Post date January 5, 2011
54 Comments on The Spring 2011 Richard and Judy Book Club Titles Revealed

I wasn’t a big fan of Richard and Judy’s Winter reads, but they have just revealed their Spring collection and the selection looks much more promising.

The books are:

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley

This Perfect World by Suzanne Bugler

Room by Emma Donoghue

You’re Next by Gregg Hurwitz

Trespass by Rose Tremain

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

The Blasphemer by by Nigel Farndale

I have read three of the selection:

Room by Emma Donoghue

My favourite read in 2010. I’m delighted to see it selected, but think it is a shame that The TV Book Club and Richard and Judy have chosen to highlight the same book.

The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale

I loved this book and am very happy to see it reach a wider audience. It is a fantastic book club choice as there is a lot to discuss. It also contains some of the best war scenes I have ever read. I highly recommend it.

Trespass by Rose Tremain

I have loved Rose Tremain in the past, but this isn’t her best book. It is quite slow and thoughtful so don’t get it if you like your reads to be fast paced.

I have heard wonderful things about Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and The Postmistress, but I’m not sure they are for me. I worry that the word “charming” is used to describe Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand and I wonder if I’ve read too many war stories for The Postmistress to stand out. I haven”t heard of the other books on the list, but look forward to seeing what others make of them.

What do you think of the selection?

Do you think that I’d enjoy any of the other books on the list?

2009 Chick Lit

One Day – David Nicholls

I loved Starter for Ten and almost rushed out to read One Day when it was first published. I was stopped by a series of negative reviews and having read the book I now understand why. The two are very different and I think fans of one will be unlikely to love the other.

One Day is essentially a romance story following a couple who have a one night stand at university. We glimpse one day of their lives each year for the next twenty years – seeing their ambitions and accomplishemts develop and change.

I loved the beginning of the book. The characters were very well developed, seemingly coming alive on the page. I found their conversations realistic and, at times, moving. Unfortunately I found that the plot lost a lot of momentum in the middle section. 100 pages of this 400+ page book could easily have been removed without loosing anything. The book regained its magic towards the end and I thought the last few chapters were especially powerful.

One Day had far less humor than Starter for Ten and I also felt the extended time period meant that it lacked the magical remisicing power and sense of place. One Day is basically a very well written piece of chick lit and so will have a much narrower group of fans than Starter for Ten. I did enjoy reading the book, but there were times when I felt the plot was contrived in order to fit everything into that one day each year.

Overall it was an entertaining read that I’d recommend to anyone looking for a well written romance, but I’d encourage you to try Starter for Ten first.

Opinion is divided on this one:

I laughed and cried whilst reading this book in one sitting. Savidge Reads

I was less than impressed. Lucybird’s Book Blog

One Day, is at times moving, funny and sad, and then you’ll turn the page and laugh your face off! Highly, Highly recommended. Bart’s Bookshelf

I failed to be moved by the couple’s blindness to one another — and grew tired of reading about more unhappy choices and bitter affairs. Write Meg!

Blogging Other

My New Year’s Resolution #2: Only Read Fantastic Fiction

Post author By Jackie
Post date January 3, 2011
100 Comments on My New Year’s Resolution #2: Only Read Fantastic Fiction

I have come to the conclusion that life is too short to read anything that isn’t amazing. Last year I spent far too much time reading things that were OK, but nothing special. I was sucked into completing entire prize lists, despite not falling in love with the books on them.

I’m making big changes on this blog

This year I’m going to make a big effort to abandon any book that doesn’t excite me. I hope that this blog will have no books rated 3.5 stars or less from now on. I also hope that I’ll be able to give up on books far sooner than previously. My experiments over Christmas have shown that I find this really hard, but I find the 80 – 100 pages I have given books in the past far too long. In my heart I normally know a book isn’t for me after just a few pages.

I am aware that some books take a while to get into and I would hate to miss out on a fantastic book with a slow start – so I am going to launch a new feature on my blog:

Read or Reject?

Once or twice a month I will write mini reviews for all the books I have abandoned, explaining exactly why I did so. If you have read and loved any of the books mentioned then I hope you will be able to prevent me from missing out on a gem, or at least let me know if the book is likely to change in style towards the end.

I’m hoping that this change in approach will mean I can quickly work through my massive TBR pile, allowing me to reject anything that is failing to entertain me whilst highlighting all the wonderful books that are out there.

I was particularly struck by a comment made by Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog on her end of year summary

I said “yes” to everything I was genuinely interested in reading. And since one can only tell so much about a book from a canned email pitch, I organized my galley shelves according to month of publication and did the actual deciding in the comfort of my living room, where I could pick up the books, flip through them, read a few pages or a few chapters, and make a more informed (and, ahem, deliberate) choice about what to read next.

And HOO BOY, it was amazing!

I’m not planning to do exactly the same as Rebecca, but her basic principle really interested me.

I hope that this will help me to work through my massive stack of books, the majority of which were bought for the wrong reason (because they were cheap!) and only complete the best of the bunch.

How will this affect my prize list reading?

I still plan to try all the books on the prize lists, but I’m not going to force myself to finish any that aren’t to my taste. I was interested to see how insightfully Gav from Next Read was able to review the Booker short list just by reading the first chapter of each book and I hope I can do a similar thing.

I hope that my blog will become a much more positive place to be. I will end up completing far fewer books this year, but you will know that the ones I do are special.

This is the hardest resolution I have ever made. I find it really hard to abandon books, but I need to be strict with myself or I will never find the time to read the ones that are already on my wishlist.

What do you think?

How many pages of a book do you think you need to read to know you’ll enjoy the book?

Other

My New Year’s Resolution #1: Buy More Books

Post author By Jackie
Post date January 2, 2011
54 Comments on My New Year’s Resolution #1: Buy More Books

Buying more books might seem like a really silly resolution (especially given the number of books I already own!) but I have decided that I want 2011 to be my most enjoyable reading year ever. I want to read the best books, not just the ones that happen to be in my library or available as a three-for-two offer in the big book shops. All too often I have read about a book which sounds fantastic, added it to my wishlist and then hoped I’d happen to stumble across it at some point. In reality this rarely happens. Often these books come from small publishers. This means they are unlikely to even turn up in a book shop, let alone become part of a special offer. I want to read the best books and would prefer to pay a bit more for a fantastic read than waste my money on an average one.

I also love the fact that these books are less well known. I want to highlight fantastic literature that you don’t necessarily know about, not just the ones you already do. It is often just a single person raving about an individual book and if someone is getting excited about something then I think it is worth risking a little bit of money instead of letting a wonderful book slip further into obscurity.

Top of my purchase list are these books: