Well, now I know how many books I read in a year. Not sure if this was typical or not.
281 in total.
199 fiction
59 non-fiction (the unaccounted were just a matter of sloppy tagging)
Of this, there were:
43 romance (what to cut down on in the year ahead!)
39 young adult
34 graphic novels
32 middle grade
29 mystery
18 memoir
7 chapter books
6 biographies
No real surprises - the easiest reads were most read. It averages 77% of a book per day (which is a bit alarming). If you assume that a book a day is the usual speed, then 84 days (nearly 3 months!) passed without any reading. August was the big reading month, followed closely by January and September.
I've read other blogs where the goal of reading a book a month isn't met. Next year I'll try to restrain myself so I can spend more time writing. Some number between 12 and 280....the average would be 146 books. I think I'll aim even lower, let's say an even hundred.
On the list:
In the Land of Painted Caves
A History of the World in 100 Objects
for starters...
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Enough Already!
Author: Peter Walsh
Declutter your mind to fix your life from one of Oprah's boys. Not bad, but really, I need to just start with the physical for now. Big print and an easy read.
Declutter your mind to fix your life from one of Oprah's boys. Not bad, but really, I need to just start with the physical for now. Big print and an easy read.
Steve Jobs
Author:Walter Isaacson
Fascinating look at an uncompromising asshole. I love the products that he brought us and am sorry for all the roadkill he created in doing it. Hope Mike doesn't take this as good business advice.
I liked Jobs a lot better before I knew anything. The author plays it fair and it's clear a lot of work and research went into the book.
Fascinating look at an uncompromising asshole. I love the products that he brought us and am sorry for all the roadkill he created in doing it. Hope Mike doesn't take this as good business advice.
I liked Jobs a lot better before I knew anything. The author plays it fair and it's clear a lot of work and research went into the book.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Such a Pretty Face
Short Stories about Beauty
Mixed bag from all points of view. Not a big short story fan and the one story that mystified my (by Tim Wynne-Jones of all writers) threw me off. Simply could not work out what was reality in that one. Which I remember in greater detail than any other story.
Mixed bag from all points of view. Not a big short story fan and the one story that mystified my (by Tim Wynne-Jones of all writers) threw me off. Simply could not work out what was reality in that one. Which I remember in greater detail than any other story.
Going Bovine
Author: Libba Bray
Wow. So different from other Libba Bray books I've read. It gives me hope.
A teenage boy suffers from mad cow disease and lays dying in hospital, but traveling though his mind with a punk angel, a dwarf and a garden gnome, who is actually Balder (the God). Beautiful, tragic, comic and alarming all at once.
Wow. So different from other Libba Bray books I've read. It gives me hope.
A teenage boy suffers from mad cow disease and lays dying in hospital, but traveling though his mind with a punk angel, a dwarf and a garden gnome, who is actually Balder (the God). Beautiful, tragic, comic and alarming all at once.
Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall
Author: Wendy Mass
Verse novel (/) in part, linked to items from the mall that lead the POV character on some much needed self-exploration, recalling her past behaviours that led up to her not trying to avoid a direct hit to the head in dodgeball. Really an unlovable main character, but in such pain and self-awareness that it's hard to look away.
Verse novel (/) in part, linked to items from the mall that lead the POV character on some much needed self-exploration, recalling her past behaviours that led up to her not trying to avoid a direct hit to the head in dodgeball. Really an unlovable main character, but in such pain and self-awareness that it's hard to look away.
The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Author: Deb Caletti
This was a surprise to me - a slow burn novel with a very average, calm POV character who has such a strong sense of right that she decides to return things her father has taken and kept from his past lovers. She enlists her half-sister, who has a truck to help dispense the items.
I found the confessions a bit jarring, even though they were informative. A good book to hand to a teenager wondering what is love, what is abuse, and how do I tell the difference.
Will read more of this author - such wisdom in a YA novel.
This was a surprise to me - a slow burn novel with a very average, calm POV character who has such a strong sense of right that she decides to return things her father has taken and kept from his past lovers. She enlists her half-sister, who has a truck to help dispense the items.
I found the confessions a bit jarring, even though they were informative. A good book to hand to a teenager wondering what is love, what is abuse, and how do I tell the difference.
Will read more of this author - such wisdom in a YA novel.
Hourglass
Author: Myra McEntire
Was in and out with this one. Found that I was disappointed - advance press must have played up the seeing ghosts portion of the book and downplayed the quantum physics time travel and conspiracy side of it.
Enjoyed it, but not a rave.
Was in and out with this one. Found that I was disappointed - advance press must have played up the seeing ghosts portion of the book and downplayed the quantum physics time travel and conspiracy side of it.
Enjoyed it, but not a rave.
Shug
Author: Jenny Han
Incredibly good at pulling me into the emotional pain and turmoil of being a teenager with crush and all the horrid things that can and will go wrong all around that. Great portrayal of the sibling and parents and the sense of the family existing within the judgmental pool of others for the duration. POV character is so honest and unflinching in her expressions.
Cried. Couldn't help it. Very satisfying.
Incredibly good at pulling me into the emotional pain and turmoil of being a teenager with crush and all the horrid things that can and will go wrong all around that. Great portrayal of the sibling and parents and the sense of the family existing within the judgmental pool of others for the duration. POV character is so honest and unflinching in her expressions.
Cried. Couldn't help it. Very satisfying.
Castle Corona
Author: Sharon Creech
A fairytale that was a bit more judgemental than I expected, albeit deserved. Why do princesses just sit around in pretty dresses? Great settings and characters - even the minor characters are substantial.
Funny naivete of the royal family, and the silly acceptance by everyone in court of their whims and fancies.
A fairytale that was a bit more judgemental than I expected, albeit deserved. Why do princesses just sit around in pretty dresses? Great settings and characters - even the minor characters are substantial.
Funny naivete of the royal family, and the silly acceptance by everyone in court of their whims and fancies.
Monday, December 19, 2011
The Dead of Winter
Author: Chris Priestley
Horror? Gothic? A good ghost tale, very creepy, but with safe places to stop, that tries to leave you frightened at the end. Nicely set in that 'Victorian era' with train travel and horses and lonely fens and bogs.
Horror? Gothic? A good ghost tale, very creepy, but with safe places to stop, that tries to leave you frightened at the end. Nicely set in that 'Victorian era' with train travel and horses and lonely fens and bogs.
Superstitions: 1013 Wacky Myths, Fables & Old Wives Tales
Author: Deborah Murrell
A compendium without exhaustive detail, just glossing over the surface. Too light for my taste and explanations too non-committal. Something shorter, with less scope and juicier would be more to my taste. No fault in the writing, just too broad in subject.
A compendium without exhaustive detail, just glossing over the surface. Too light for my taste and explanations too non-committal. Something shorter, with less scope and juicier would be more to my taste. No fault in the writing, just too broad in subject.
Empress
Author: Shan Sa
The woman who ruled China in the sixth century, Empress Wu, speaks in this volume about her life, lovers and political intrigues. Very revealing of a way of thinking that is pretty alien to me.
The woman who ruled China in the sixth century, Empress Wu, speaks in this volume about her life, lovers and political intrigues. Very revealing of a way of thinking that is pretty alien to me.
The Forsyte Saga: Volume One
Author: John Galsworthy
I'd like to try this again in a different format - the paperback book was so thick and densely printed it was a trial to read, even though the writing was engaging, and had lots of characters crowding the stage at once (which is something I quite like, more like life to me than a sparsely populated page).
Someday, in ebook format I'll try again. Didn't get past Chapter 3.
I'd like to try this again in a different format - the paperback book was so thick and densely printed it was a trial to read, even though the writing was engaging, and had lots of characters crowding the stage at once (which is something I quite like, more like life to me than a sparsely populated page).
Someday, in ebook format I'll try again. Didn't get past Chapter 3.
A Presumption of Death
Author: Jill Paton Walsh & Dorothy L. Sayers
A Lord Peter Whimsey Novel
Loved it - always a sucker for decaying gentry, especially during Britain's finest hour (WW2). POV protagonist is very likable (albeit absent) mother, intelligent, full of poetry and not a toff. Interesting time period, when spies could be revealed by their dentistry.
Will look for more of this series.
A Lord Peter Whimsey Novel
Loved it - always a sucker for decaying gentry, especially during Britain's finest hour (WW2). POV protagonist is very likable (albeit absent) mother, intelligent, full of poetry and not a toff. Interesting time period, when spies could be revealed by their dentistry.
Will look for more of this series.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb
Author: Melanie Benjamin
The voice and the prissiness, the keen mind and instinct for self-preservation were well done. Although fiction, there seemed to be enough detail and fact to firmly set the story in its time.
Now I want to read the first hand account of their three year world tour by Sylvester Bleeker.
The voice and the prissiness, the keen mind and instinct for self-preservation were well done. Although fiction, there seemed to be enough detail and fact to firmly set the story in its time.
Now I want to read the first hand account of their three year world tour by Sylvester Bleeker.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
The Nanny
Author: Melissa Nathan
Girl from the British boonies takes job as nanny in chaotic household. Interesting in that the nanny doesn't solve everything or anything, the parents do. Like a braided coming of age story for the nanny, the mother & father and a few of the kids.
Single read, wondered briefly if it was the source material for The Nanny Diaries, but apparently not.
Look for Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field and Persuading Annie.
Girl from the British boonies takes job as nanny in chaotic household. Interesting in that the nanny doesn't solve everything or anything, the parents do. Like a braided coming of age story for the nanny, the mother & father and a few of the kids.
Single read, wondered briefly if it was the source material for The Nanny Diaries, but apparently not.
Look for Pride, Prejudice and Jasmin Field and Persuading Annie.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Half Moon Street
Author: Anne Perry
One of the Victorian era Charlotte & Thomas Pitt detective novels. Great examination of pornography, very gently undertaken against a backdrop that included the new art of photography and the plays of Oscar Wilde.
One of the Victorian era Charlotte & Thomas Pitt detective novels. Great examination of pornography, very gently undertaken against a backdrop that included the new art of photography and the plays of Oscar Wilde.
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing
Author: Melissa Bank
Really enjoyed the episodic feel - like short stories about the same person all linked up and adding up to a life. Loved the cheerleader and office assistant section, where Janie plays by 'the rules'. Good use of fantasy that. Also, really loved the fact that the woman's job and family were integral parts of the story, nothing glossed over or ignored.
The teenage voice in the first section really had my hopes up for a YA novel. Brilliant.
Look forward to her next book.
Really enjoyed the episodic feel - like short stories about the same person all linked up and adding up to a life. Loved the cheerleader and office assistant section, where Janie plays by 'the rules'. Good use of fantasy that. Also, really loved the fact that the woman's job and family were integral parts of the story, nothing glossed over or ignored.
The teenage voice in the first section really had my hopes up for a YA novel. Brilliant.
Look forward to her next book.
More Than A Mistress
Author: Mary Balogh
Good bath book, regency, duels, a woman wronged, true love with a duke. Rather unexpected interference in a duel by a maid. Interesting starting point.
Good bath book, regency, duels, a woman wronged, true love with a duke. Rather unexpected interference in a duel by a maid. Interesting starting point.
Naughty in Nice
Author: Rhys Bowen
Georgie, 34th in line to the throne, goes to the south of France, models for Chanel, meets and nearly falls for a fraudulent Marquis and literally falls off the runway. Plus more of that nasty Simpson woman.
Georgie, 34th in line to the throne, goes to the south of France, models for Chanel, meets and nearly falls for a fraudulent Marquis and literally falls off the runway. Plus more of that nasty Simpson woman.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
I am Half-sick of Shadows
Author: Alan Bradley
Always delightful, Flavia de Luce was a bit off in this volume. Not sure if it was the belief in Santa or the revelations about Aunt Felicity that did it, but this was not my fave.
Having said that, it's still good and has laugh out loud moments, but Buckshaw was just too crowded with anonymous people to really relax and enjoy the ride.
Always delightful, Flavia de Luce was a bit off in this volume. Not sure if it was the belief in Santa or the revelations about Aunt Felicity that did it, but this was not my fave.
Having said that, it's still good and has laugh out loud moments, but Buckshaw was just too crowded with anonymous people to really relax and enjoy the ride.
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