Jodyreadseverything in 2011

My new list for the new year.




Last years list: http://www.librarything.com/topic/84293

1. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

I'm cheating with this one, it was my New Year crossover book, so I'm counting it as my last and first.

The three Story sisters, Elv, Meg and Claire are almost identical and very close. They have their own language, Arnish, and Elv believes they were stolen from Arnell, a world of daemons and fairies and magical powers.

She is determined to find her way back and her sisters are keen to go with her. But as they grow older Meg becomes disillusioned with Elv and her stories and Claire more enraptured, to the point that her life is endangered. Elv and Claire share a secret that sets them apart from Meg and their Mother, Annie, but Elv is on a destrutive path that changes all their lives.

This is an odd one. At first I liked it, then I didn't and finally I think I understood what the author was trying to say with it and enjoyed it. Alice Hoffman is still very much an author I am keen to read and it's (just about) a happier book than Skylight Confessions, the last one of hers that I read.

I gave this book: 2 1/2 stars

2. Room by Emma Donoghue

Not an easy read but a good one.

Jack is five years old and has spent every day of his life in Room with his Ma. His friends are their furniture and the features in Room, such as Bed, Trash and Wardrobe and also the cartoon characters such as Dora who come to visit on TV. Also visiting from TV are places such as Hospital Planet but Jack knows that nothing exists outside Room except for Old Nick, who visits Ma at night while Jack sleeps in Wardrobe.

Shortly after Jack's fifth birthday Ma tells him a shocking secret, and together they come up with a plan that Ma says will help them go Outside, a place Jack is afraid of even though he knows it doesn't exist.

Room isn't easy reading and is inspired by real life events involving kidnapped girls kept as sexual prisoners for many years. Written entirely from the point of view of Jack, Room is both innocent and shocking and one particular detail, touched on briefly at intervals, had me feeling very upset. What we are aware of while Jack is innocently unaware, what is apparent at the start to us as wrong but seems normal to Jack and what is slowly revealed in greater detail, is that Jack and his mother are held prisoner by a man who uses Jack's Ma as his sexual slave, that they are locked away from the world and that this man is Jack's father, a man who is both brutal and at odd times epathetic (but not enough).

It's impossible for me now to read or watch anything without relating it back to my own experience as a mother so to me the horror of the book was imagining the pain of being held prisoner with my own son at the whim of a madman, knowing what my son was missing from the world and wanting to keep him safe.

It's hard to say I enjoyed the book but I wanted to know what happened to Jack and Ma and it was a very fast read. It reminded me very much of The Collector by John Fowles (although not quite as good, not quite as creepy) and I would now make a point of looking out for other books by the author.

I gave this book: 4 stars

3. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth

A reread and still a very good book.

Annie is in her late twenties, overweight and new to the area. Certain that she has met new neighbour Neil somewhere before she attempts to become first a friend and then a romantic interest to him despite attracting the ire of his much younger girlfriend Lucy.

Told with a disturbing backstory of Annie's past and increasingly and equally disturbing revellations about her growing obsession with Neil, this book was just as good on the reread as it was the first time around, and even though I was fully aware of the ending it still managed to make me inch closer to the edge of my seat with every turn of the page.

4. Kirstie's Homemade Home by Kirstie Allsopp

This is an odd one to read. It's based on Kirstie Allsopp's TV series in which she attempts to inspire people to be more creative with both their hobbies and their home decor and to lead people away from mass produced identikit furnishings and make their homes unique.

The first half of the book is split into room by room chapers in which Kirstie talks a great deal about her own homes (I think she has three) and the styles in which she and her husband (some sort of property developer) have decorated them.

There are many, many pictures of Kirstie's homes and the homes of her friends and the homes of the crafts people she has worked with during the filming of her TV series.

Kirstie seems to have a vastly larger amount of money than me and I think she has access to some kind of storage warehouse in which she pops her one-off purchases and creations until she finds the perfect opportunity to use them. She buys a lot of shelves and many, many large fireplaces, all of which are either installed in the large rooms of her homes or tucked away for use in the future.

There are lots of references to Meadow Gate, her holiday home which she renovated on national television, and which has space in the kitchen for table that seats about 20 people and which outside in the garden has a small woodland area by the back door. There are also a lot of references to buying things from skips and getting beds that ought to cost several hundred pounds each for just £20 per pair.

The second part of the book shows you how to complete certain craft projects, from stencilling a picture to making a mosaic table or from icing a cake to making tea cosies from jumpers accidentally shrunken in the wash. I think all of the crafts and projects have been featured in her TV series and it's the sections on patchwork quilting and rag rug making that have captured my interest enough to use part of my precious Christmas gift voucher
to buy her book.

She makes one unforgivable comment about how even if you don't read books they still make a very nice decoration for a room so it's worth buying some with nice spines and bindings anyway.

But that aside, her enthusiasm for her subject is infectious and fun, most of the projects are interesting and inspiring and her desire to help people both recycle their odd bits and bobs into beautiful homemade objects and turn their homes into unique spaces rather than chain store showrooms is both genuine and touching. Kirstie is so successful here in the UK because she is likable and that made it easier for me to forgive her for having three homes, lots more money than me and a warehouse full of lovely spare sideboards and marble worktops just waiting for her to buy house number four.

The bits of the TV series I saw showed Kirstie joining in and having fun, her efforts weren't always perfect and the ordinary people she featured in the show either showing off and teaching their craft or learning a new skill to enhance their own homes were always interesting. I'm hoping to gain a few tips and ideas from this book so I can try some of her projects myself but the book was also a pleasure just to look at and daydream about what I might try.

I gave this book: 4 stars

I'm looking forward to reading Room - thanks for the review.

Welcome back!

Glad to see you back with us again, Jody!

Just flying through to wish you luck with this year's challenge. Glad to see from your old thread that you liked World Without End as much as I did and I think we agree pretty much word-for-word on Room. I did find that one rather better than I'd expected because I'd been fearing something more depressing and possibly even violent and it isn't like that at all - in fact, the violence that does exist is made more menacing by being kept very low-key. As you say, The Collector is a better book (though also one for which you need a stronger stomach) but this was decidedly okay. On the subject of her other books, wasn't it also Donoghue who wrote Slammerkin? (Yes, it was, touchstones agree!) I'm not sure I'd recommend that one. I seem to remember it being good in parts and pretty terrible in others, though it's now slipped my mind which parts were which. Maybe she doesn't do history very well? I'd certainly be quite interested in seeing anything else she's written in a modern setting.

Yay, Jody is back online! Whooo hooo!

I tried reading The Collector. I got about 50 pages in and lost interest. Does it get more interesting further in?

I ordered Room from the library a few weeks ago. I think I'm in 100th place for it. It will be awhile. Heh.

*waves*

Hi Jody!!

Hi everyone. I'm not quite back online, we are still deciding on which service to use now, but I took the chance to use my parents internet while I could.

The Collector is very creepy (I think so anyway) but it is a low key creepiness, very subtle. If it were a film (and it might be) it would be like comparing Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca to some modern slasher film with a lot of special effects and blood. The special effects are good but Hitchcock could be scarier with just a few shadows and some spooky music.

#12 Just out of interest, it was filmed, I think some time in the 60s, starring Terence Stamp. I've heard good things about the film but haven't dared to watch it as I'm fearful it might spoil rereadings of the book for me. Maybe one day, though I guess it'll look pretty dated by now.

Thanks for your review of Room. It is a book I have been thinking about getting, but I am still not quite sure... I think it should be on my wishlist...

#14 - if it helps you decide, a lot of the details are left to your imagination rather than explained in graphic detail. There are a few moments where a piece of information is given that shocks you but again it is with a few simple words that leave the reader to think and imagine most of what happened.

#15, Thanks for clarifying, that is how I like my horrible happenings books the best.

Backing Jody here on that one. I was expecting Room to be quite horrible (in a 'can't stop reading' kind of way) but I found any suggestions of horrible things very understated, though there is a good deal of suspense. There's a lot more focus on the relationship between the woman and her son than there is gratuitous yuckiness.

5. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

A reread prompted by seeing about ten minutes of the film on TV over Christmas.

Somewhere in my copy of the book (perhaps the back cover) Barbara is described as an unreliable narrator of the story of teacher Sheba Hart and her illegal, extramarital affair with a teenage student from the school they both teach at. I tried very hard to remember this as I was reading but I did find that Barbara was able to colour my vision of Sheba quite well at times, especially when she painted her as snobbish and scornful (as when Sheba saw a three piece suite for the first time "in real life" and laughed, claiming it was like meeting a crying clown or a sailor with an anchor tattoo on his forearm). It was moments like this when any hint of sympathy I had for Sheba was washed away with feelings that she deserved all she got from the discovery of the affair.

This book was a good one to read following A Kind of Intimacy as again we have an obsessed and unreliable person telling the story from their point of view only and leaving us wondering how much of what we read is the truth.

6. Partial Eclipse by Lesley Glaister

Another reread and another obsessed woman telling her story in her own way, leaving us unsure of the truth.

This book is the sequel to Digging to Australia but it can be read without knowing the story of the first book (it does give away a bit of that plot though).

Jenny is in prison for a crime that we don't find out until the very end of the book. As the story starts she is locked in solitary confinement and slowly begins to tell us three stories. One is of her life in prison, the second is Jenny's imaginings of her ancestor, Peggy Maybee, who was transported to Australia for stealing a peacock, and the third is the story of events that lead to her imprisonment in the first place.

I very much liked Jenny in the first book and so was resolutely on her side throughout this one, despite her bad behaviour and terrible crime, and I finished the book once again hoping that we might have one more story from Jenny that leads her to a happier life than the one she is currently living.

Currently reading: Kraken by China Mieville

So far, so good.

Abandoned. A big dead squid was the most appealing thing about the book. Might try it again at a later date.

Hi, Jody! You have been really busy flipping pages, and I'm respectful and envious. I'm really envious of your getting into Kraken now. I'm going to put that one on my Kindle soon!

Hey Jody... Finally read Room, and I was impressed! Thank you for giving me that final push to read it. I want to read The Collector also, as many people recommend it too...

#22 - I'm glad you liked it. Once I've recommended something I always worry that anyone who reads it after me will ask "what were you thinking, it was awful!?"

My reading of Kraken is not going so well now. It's turned very odd and Neil Gaiman-y and I'm plodding along hoping things pick up soon.

Just stopping by to say hi! Hope your reading gets better soon (although "very odd and Neil Gaiman-y" sounds like heaven to me!).

#23: I have the same feeling, with whatever I recommend. And I always feel guilty if someone has a bad experience, even though it's not my fault.

#24: I was just thinking the same thing. It sounds more like a recommendation ;)

#24/25 - it's the funny way some of the characters talk. It takes some concentration and I am caring less than I had hoped about to about a big squid and some nutcases.

I'm still ploughing through but I think I was in the wrong mood to start this one.

Which is why...

7. The Witch's Trinity by Erika Mailmann

This one sneaked onto my reading list last night, when I left Kraken downstairs by mistake and felt too lazy to go fetch it.

It took me about three hours to read this book and it did have me very worried about the main character.

Gude is getting old and her daughter in law, Irmeltrude, resents feeding and housing her through a famine that is slowly starving the family and their entire 16th Centuary German village to death.

Having already cast Gude out behind her husbands back only to see her return to the family home which Gude's husband originally built for her, Irmeltrude seizes her second chance to rid herself of a burden when Jost, her husband and Gude's son, leaves with a hunting party in a desperate search for food while a visiting friar is scouring the village for witches.

With one village woman already tried and burned, Irmeltrude points her finger at Gude, who has just three days to work out how to save her own life.

This story is told by Gude, who admits that she is an unreliable narrator of her own life due to her increasing confusion and forgetfulness. She suffers from wild dreams which she fears may be actual events, temptations by witches and the devil to eat the food the entire village are so desperate to find. She forgets things and suspects she may have unwittingly entered into a bargain with the devil.

The story very vividly reveals the atmosphere of suspicion, desperation, fear and hunger that hang over the village and shows just how easy it was for an innocent woman to be tried as a witch when accused by the people she has known and trusted all her life.

I couldn't put the book down until I had learned Gude's fate and it was interesting to read the information at the end about an ancestor of the author, who was accused of witchcraft at least twice in her life and fought for her own survival.

I gave this book: 4 stars

Well.. I hope you are hapy missy!
My grand book ban fail is your fault.
:(

But... erm.. thanks :)

#28 - I'm happy! :-D

Grand book ban? Why would you want to do a thing like that?

8. Important artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton

A reread, to make up for Kraken, which is proving very difficult to get through.

Still just as good, in fact better, than the first two times I read it, and I noticed a lot more third time around.

I gave this book: 5 stars (but really, we need more).

#27: Adding that one to the BlackHole.

#30: That one is already in the BlackHole due to your recommendation of it last year :)

#31 - Sorry! But you won't be disappointed in either (I hope).

#29... Misguided I guess... lol

Hi There

I'm compiling a list of birthdays of our group members. If you haven't done so already, would you mind stopping by this thread and posting yours.

Thanks.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/105833

9. Your Presence is requested at Suvanto by Maile Chapman

Reading this book was peaceful, every word managing to seem soothing and calming and restful, very much the atmosphere that Suvanto itself was designed to offer it's guests.

Because the "up patients" on the top floor do seem very much like guests at an expensive hotel rather than patients at a sanotaurium.

When Julia arrives at Suvanto in a taxi, dressed in furs and jewels, accompanied by expensive luggage but without the money to pay her fair, American nurse, Sunny Taylor becomes quietly fascinated with her and the events which brought her to the hospital.

Suvanto and Finland are as much characters as anyone else in the book and the writing is lovely. This is the first book by Maile Chapman and it is very well presented. I will be looking out for her next one.

I gave this book: 4 stars

10. After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

Following the funeral of Richard Abernathie his family gather for the reading of the will. All seems as it should until his estranged sister Cora Landsquenet upholds a long tradition of blurting out uncomfortable truths and speaks out "But he was murdered, wasn't he?"

The family dismiss this as Cora being Cora but within a matter of days she herself is violently murdered and the family solicitor and long-term friend, Mr Entwhistle decides to seek the advice of Hercule Poirot.

I have read this book before but had forgotten most of it, so the twist at the end was still a surprise. I liked the book and felt it was one of Agatha Christie's best. Poirot is my favourite of her detectives and although I missed Hastings I enjoyed the relationship between Poirot and Entwhistle just as much.

11. Ghost of a Chance by Rhiannon Lassiter

Eva Chance is sixteen years old and dead. She cannot remember how she died or who may have killed her, at first she doesn't even know she is dead. All she knows is that something is wrong with her family and as they gather at the mansion house Eva lives in with her Grandfather the ghosts of the house seem to be aggitated and out of control. And it's up to Eva to solve her own murder and save the remaining Chance family from an ancient curse.

This wasn't a bad mystery but I think it's one I would have enjoyed much more as a teenager myself. I did guess a major plot point and some of the story was a little shaky but there were also some very creepy moments that wouldn't be out of place in a real horror novel. The ducking stool (and what it contains) and the stain on the stairs with the Stalker are two such moments.

It's not one that I think I will be keen to read again and I don't think I will be rushing out to read her other books (although the preview of her next one in the back of this book did have another very creepy moment in it that has played on my mind, so perhaps I might give that one a chance if I find it in the bookshops) but I did enjoy it and it was a quick read.

I gave this book: 2 1/2 stars

#35: What did you think of that one, Jody?

#39 - I liked it. I will do a proper review of it but I haven't had time yet and I wanted to get them on here before I forget.

#40: I will look forward to your review then!

12. Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope

This is what happens when you leave the house in a hurry and forget your book. You end up in the charity shop looking for something to tide you over and end up with this.

It was dull. The characters were hard to care for because they were dull and predictable and you guess everything that's going to happen, which isn't actually a great deal. And you find it hard to remember the names of the characters when you need to write your review.

When Edie and Raymond's (I think that was his name) youngest son Ben moves out to live with his girlfriend (Naomi?) Raymond is happy that he and his wife can get their marriage back after years of just being Mum and Dad. But Edie is heartbroken with her empty nest and longs for Ben to come home. Raymond and her sister Vivi (missing her own emigrated son and coping with her wayward husband) tell her to concentrate on her new acting job in Ibsen's Ghosts but Edie instead takes in fellow actor Lazlo, who seems in need of a mother figure, and suddenly one by one her three children are also clamouring to come home as relationships and job loses force a crisis in their lives. And Edie is suddenly not sure if she wants her nest quite so full anymore.

The moral of the story seems to be a combination of "be careful what you wish for" and "grow up and get out."

I gave this book: 1 star

#42: Ugh. Sounds terrible. On to the 'Do Not Read' list it goes.

I hope you never forget your book ever again, Jody!

13. The Brightest Star in the Sky by Marian Keyes

Candyfloss on a wobbly stick.

The residents of 66 Star Street are being watched by a mysterious, unseen being. From Katie on the top floor, 40 years old and dating workaholic Conall, to prickly Lydia and her two handsome but hostile Polish housemates on the third floor, Jemima with her dog Grudge and adult foster son Fionn on the second floor and perfect couple Maeve and Matt on the ground floor, not one resident goes unobserved. But who by and what for? As their secrets are slowly revealled to the reader it soon becomes clear that a choice is being made.

It was a mostly gentle way to pass the time. There was only one real suprise for me in the book, all the other plot twists were predictable but the characters were mostly likable (except for Fionn, his name alone got on my nerves) and the identity of the watcher was a bit of an odd bit to the plot really. I know it was a way to link the characters together and reveal their backstories but it was still a bit odd. I liked it though.

I gave this book: 3 stars

#45: Candyfloss on a wobbly stick.

No idea what that means, but it does not sound good. I think I will give that book a pass.

I hope your next read is better for you, Jody!

#46 - It means it's light and fluffy reading but some of the plot is a bit shaky in places. It got three stars because I'm fond of the author. :-)

14. I am number four by Pittacus Lore

Not as clever as it thinks it is.

Ooh, I just bought that, Jody - please don't give too much away.

I love your comments.. lol

I agree. Your comments say it all.

I also just finished I am Number Four and wish I came up with that brilliant summary. Sums it up perfect.

Thank you. I just saw that I am number four is the first of six books, so this is one series that I won't be finishing.

And if I had seen this on Wikipedia first, I wouldn't have read the first one. (In case anyone doesn't know, Pittacus Lore is a pen name for James Frey and Jobie Hughes, who wrote the book in collaboration.)

Full Fathom Five - In 2009, Frey formed "Full Fathom Five," a young adult novel publishing company that aimed to create highly commercial, high concept novels like Twilight. In November 2010, controversy arose when an MFA student who had been in talks to create content for the company released her extremely limiting contract online. The contract allows Frey license to remove an author from a project at any time, does not require him to give the author credit for their work, and only pays a standard advance of $250. A New York Magazine article entitled, "James Frey's Fiction Factory," gave more details about the company, including information about the highly successful "I Am Number Four" series, a collaboration between author Jobie Hughes and Frey. The article details how Frey removed Hughes from the project, allegedly during a screaming match between the two authors. In the article, Frey is accused of abusing and using MFA students as cheap labor to churn out commercial young adult books.

My opinion of fiction factories is the same as my opinion of puppy farms. I want a refund.

James Frey?!! ptui !

Bugger it. I've thrown away my receipt or I'd actually be taking this one back. I wonder if I hate anyone enough to give it to?

Yeah, I long ago decided I'd have nothing to do with I Am Number Four and Frey's author factory. The man is a slimeball scumbag, and that's all there is to it. These poor hopeful authors have no idea what they're getting into, and then Frey treats them like dirt.

>54 mckait:: I did that just the other day! I had to mention his name, and then I spit on the ground. LOL.

I didn't even know that was gonig on. That's terrible!

*off to remove Frey's books from wishlist*

56 *grin* great minds..
57 Good ! :)

#57 - so some good has come from my mistake :-)

doncha feel warm and fuzzy now? :)

Sounds like you've had a string of howler reads - hope your next one is fantastic to make up for it!

Also wanted to mentiont that Timmy Time finally is available on DVD over here. We got it for Charlie and he *loves* it! I thought of you and your little one while we watched it the first time.

15. Angelology by Danielle Trussoni

Halfway through but liking it so far.

#61 - Timmy Time is great, I'm glad Charlie loves it. We are going through a Humf phase now though.

Angelology .. liked it a lot.. :)

#64 - Good. I've been enjoying it but I've had a couple of days being too tired to give it the proper attention it needs. I'm glad it's worth sticking with :-)

16. Lasting Damage by Sophie Hannah

Connie and Kit should have the perfect marriage but when Connie becomes suspicious that Kit is leading a double life she cannot trust him and her doubts lead her to obsession. As she finds herself stalking a total stranger in her quest for answers, her marriage crumbles and her domineering family threaten what's left of her sanity. Spilling police officers Sam Kombothekra, Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer return from Hannah's previous novels to help Connie solve the mystery of Kit and of a murder victim nobody believes Connie saw.

This is one of Hannah's better efforts but it still helps to suspend your belief while you read it. As the mystery unravels it starts to feel as though she couldn't decide on a final conclusion so she used three in a sort of triple bluff (this is what happened, except no...it was this...but really it was this, haha fooled you all!) that doesn't add anything to the plot. It doesn't happen in the good way that makes the reader think they have guessed the ending halfway through and then be surprised by a clever twist, it's more of a way that Hannah presents one conclusion but then kept writing to present two more just to show off. Any one of them would have worked alone, some being more believable than others, but all three together make it seem like nobody, not even Hannah, had any real clue as to what was going on. And yet she makes a big point of having one two characters explain things very clearly to the others, one on one plot, one on the other, before throwing in a short and weird final explanation from a third character right at the end that rubbishes the other two.

Having said all that, it was the sort of book I needed to read right now, not too demanding of attention and quick to get through, distracting and an entertaining way to pass the time.

I give this book: 2 stars

17. When a baby dies by Nancy Kohner

Re-read. Help and advice for bereaved parents and medical professionals which includes true accounts from parents who have lost a child before or shortly after birth.

This is the revised edition and my one suggestion for further revised editions would be to include a section of advice for bereaved parents who have to deal with unsupportive family, friends or medical professionals at varying points in the days, months and years since their loss.

18. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Just as good, if not better than the first time around.

Aging rock star Judas Coyne buys the ghost of a dead man on the internet. It fits perfectly with his macabre collection of random items, from a witches confession to a genuine snuff film, but Jude doesn't really believe a ghost will accompany the strange black suit he receives in a black, heart-shaped box. But it does and Jude soon discovers that he is the victim in a plan for revenge from beyond the grave and that the lives of everyone he knows are in danger.

There as some very creepy moments in this book and some fascinating characters. It might sound an odd choice for a comfort read but when you are in need of something well written and compelling that leaves you desperate to know how things turn out (even if you've read it before) you can't really go wrong with this one.

I liked Heart Shaped Box. Spooky!!

Sound good, I added Heart Shaped Box to my TBR pile :D

19. 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill

Re-read. Collection of short stories, not all of them scary but most have a little skew on them that makes the world seem a little off balance. This time around The Cape was my favourite story.

20. Happenstance by Carol Shields

Re-read. I love this book.

It's told as two stories, The Husband's Story and The Wife's Story and it's up to you which you read first. They both start from one side of the book and you read to the middle, then flip the book over and start again from the other front back to the middle.

They tell the story of the same five days in Chicago of the 1970's when Brenda Bowman leaves her husband Jack to care for their two children, Rob and Laurie, so she can go to Philadelphia to a craft workers convention.

Although Jack has taken a number of business trips and family life has carried on as normal Brenda feels that her trip has taken on something of a holiday quality that annoys her (for example when her well-meaning in-laws give her a bon voyage card).

In Brenda's half of the book we see her reflecting on her marriage and family life and realising that she isn't just a wife and mother but a woman with a life of her own (or, as she as described at one point, "a quilter in her own right") while experiencing her first taste of freedom.

In Jack's half of the book we see him agonise over the book he is writing, a book that seems to be a long time coming but also one that his ex girlfriend seems to have pipped him to the post to write. He also struggles with the children, his fourteen year old son being silent and uncommunicative, his twelve year old daughter living in a vague and muddled innocence, relishing her chance to be lady of the house. He also reflects on his marriage and his relationship with his parents while also struggling with his friend Bernie and his affluent but unhappy neighbours and their tragedy of a poor review in the local paper following an amateur dramatics play.

The writing is wonderful, the characters are wonderful, I liked them and I wanted good things to happen to them. This book always leaves me feeling happy and comforted and with an almost uncontrollable urge to start making a quilt.

I have to get to The Heart Shaped Box soon...

#73 - you must, it's very good.

21. Building the Pauson House by Allen Wright Green

This book is beautiful. Everything about it is a delight.

Laid out as a series of letters, plans and photographs which document the building of the Pauson house by Frank Lloyd Wright this book is as much a work of art as a source of information.

Some of the letters are a little hard to read because of the hand writing but they are charming and well worth the effort of deciphering the odd word or two.

It's wonderful to follow the progression of the relationship between client and architect and the letters show a fondness for each other (progressing from Dear Mr Wright and Dear Miss Pauson to My dear Mr Wright and My dear Miss Rose). Sadly, as so often happens when business and friendship are mixed, things turn sour with both sides feeling slighted by the other. And just one year from the completion of the house, with the correspondence still ongoing, a tragedy strikes which makes these letters and photographs all the more precious.

To view them as characters Frank Lloyd Wright and Rose Pauson are charming, fascinating people yet more than able to hold their own against the other when the relationship soured.

It's impossible to review this book without turning back to how beautifully presented this hardback copy is. It would make a beautiful 'coffee table book' and on my own bookshelves it's going to be one that I take down and gloat over because it is so lovely. It would make a beautiful gift for anyone interested in FLW, architecture or design or even someone interested in collections of correspondance between two very strong willed and delightful people.

I'm giving this one full marks and not just to the book. As publishers go Pomegranate are in a class of their own, the support literature and beautiful bookmark that came with my copy were outstanding and the book was so well packaged and presented that I felt it was almost a shame to open it all. This really is a treasure in my library now.

I gave this book: 5 stars

Oh, I'd forgotten about Happenstance - read that a few years back and really loved it too!

#75 Oh no! Not another one for the TBR pile! It sounds gorgeous.

ETA - Jody, I'm sure you must have read The House Next Door? I always imagined that the house in that story would resemble a FLW creation (and maybe even that the architect might resemble Frank too, just a little). What did you think? I've no idea whether he or his buildings were in the author's mind when she wrote it.

Sorry. It was my LTER book for last month and is probably the best one I have received in regards to the look and feel of the book and all the lovely stuff that came with it. I get excited over a compliments slip usually so to get a letter, a catalogue and a bookmark (and a tiny postcard to sign up for publishers info) was like Christmas day!

I love The House Next Door. It came recommended by Stephen King so it had to be good and it did manage to give me the creeps very nicely.

I did think a similar thing but I have never read anything about her ideas for the book other than that she wanted a twist on the 'ghost haunting the old house' theme and have a modern house with no ghost.

And when I first read it I didn't really know anything about Frank (I learned most of what I do know afterwards from Loving Frank and searching the internet afterwards).

So I had the same thought as you did but backwards, I read about Frank and thought about The House Next Door.

I have to google now and find out if there is anything to support the idea.

I couldn't find anything so I've posted it in the Author Interviews group under wanted to see if she will come to LT and answer the questions. They just need enough people to be interested and asking other questions now.

That'll be interesting if she replies. Of course, it was Danse Macabre that led me to THND too and. as you know, my first real intro to FLW was Loving Frank (and the song by Simon and Garfunkel) but I was aware of the houses before I knew anything much about the architect. I think there's a bit in THND where the protagonist describes it as organic and seeming to grow out of the landscape and those are the very words that hit me when I look at his houses.

I love the Simon and Garfunkel song. I love all the Simon and Garfunkel songs. And the Pauson house in the book does look very much as though parts of it just popped up out of the ground.

S & G was the only group my mother let me play in our house in the 60s! I so wanted to be able to play a guitar like Paul.

adding The House Next Door...

#83 - oooh! You have got to read this one, even more so than Heart Shaped Box!

Weird. My little girl rollerskating along the book worm has turned into some sort of rounders player. How did that happen?

Cashing in on the S and G thread......did you know that on Art Garfunkels website he catalogues all the books he has read since about 40 years ago? It's good one to read through when looking for inspiration!

http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library/list1.html

I saw them last year (or was it the year before?) - my best concert ever. I grew up on them from my parents record collection and lets just say, its not my usual type of music. But nostalgia.....cant beat it!

#85 Oh,J, your English roots are showing! Isn't that what 'they' call baseball? Off to check out my own ticker now . . . (footsteps away, footsteps back) nah, my tortoise (turtle?) is still trundling along. It's annoying though, isn't it - it kept happening with the tapir on my profile too.

#83 What Jody said! It's a slightly odd book in some ways. the narrator's voice is very prim, 1950s-ish and oddly contrived but it's all part of her character. It's one of those books I still reread from time to time and I so wish Siddons would try her hand at that kind of thing again. I have tried reading a couple of her other books but they did nothing for me. This one, though, is a true classic of its type. I hope it's still available as it took me several years (after finally returning 'my' first copy to its rightful owner) to track down a used copy. If it hasn't been reissued it really should be (hint to publishers)!

#86 (Sorry these are all out of order) - thank you for the list; I love lists! And I'm very envious indeed of your concert-going.

86 Thank you for the link!!!!!
love him and the idea of his list :)
I will be browsing that ...

And I picked up The House Next Door..
:)

#86 - Thank you for the link. I'll be taking a look in a moment!

#87 - I did wonder if I should put baseball but since the little rollerskating girl was meant to be me then this one with the bat is playing rounders.

#88 - Yay! I hope you enjoy it now.

#86 - Now I've got wonderful music from the "Bookends" album playing in my head. I, too, grew up listening to their albums (which my father owned) and they resonate on a very visceral level. Nice.

22. Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas

Reread of an LTER book. Loved it just as much this time around.

Meg is a writer of varying success. Her serious literary novel as a wordcount in minus figures, her sci-fi Newtopia series has ground to a halt and her work as a ghostwriter on a fiction factory team publishing under the pen name of Zeb Ross leaves her feeling disheartened. Occasional book reviews provide her with a low income.

Living unhappily with her boyfriend Christopher in a house that is making her ill, Meg is dismayed to read a book by American author Kelsey Newman which claims people will live forever. Worse, we already are living forever in the same life, we just don't know it.

With a collection of unhappy friends and relatives living complicated lives Meg takes up the challenge to change her own and although she is sceptical at first, being given the brief by her newspaper editor to use self-help books to change her life, she is more shocked to realise that the advice in them seems to be working.

With the possible suicide of an old friend, a older love interest, a mythical beast, a quest for the storyless story and the perfect pair of home knitted socks the story sounds bizarre but works really well.

>87 Booksloth:, 88, 89, 90: I was so excited when I saw his lists, I love lists too!

>91 QueenOfDenmark: great that you loved it as much second time around....it can go either way sometimes

Adding Building the Pauson House to the BlackHole and deleting I Am Number Four. Thanks for the heads up about both, Jody.

23. The haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

reread. didn't scare me this time around. too sick to type proper review but wanted to try.

24. The house next door by Anne Rivers Siddons

Reread. Booksloth and mckait's fault. Still scared me but is dated now.

25. The Small Book by Zina Rohan

It's very difficult to review this wonderful book.

In July 1915 Private Ken Hoskins is detailed to a firing squad to execute a deserter from his own company. Ken is badly affected by the experience and after the war he joins the Communist party as a way of atonement.

His children, Pam and Bill are raised with the party values and Pam grows up to become a secretary to the party leader, Harry Pollitt. Eventually his grandchildren are also raised to follow the same path and it is Roy and Margaret that we follow right through from their 1940's childhood to the 1990s, where Margaret is a defence analyst and Roy a talented and famous photographer.

And it is only then, so many years later, that we discover the full repercussions of that day in 1915 and what it really means to their family.

I loved the book, the writing was wonderful and the characters were real. I turned every page desperate to know what happened but reluctant to come to the end.

Although the war and the communist party are big influences on the characters and events they are not so much a part of the book, it's more about the ordinariness of the characters and their day to day lives. The author makes this ordinariness seem effortless and in that way it becomes very real and special.

I gave this book: 5 stars

:) gotcha with that one, huh?

How are you feeling today?

Very sorry for myself. The doctor says its a very bad bout of tonsilitis, which I am quite prone too but this is the worst I've had in a long time.

It has helped with the reading though, I've finished two books in less than 24 hours. So there is a bright side.

26. Complicit by Nicci French

I guessed whodunnit. But it was still a good read.

Bonnie Graham had planned a summer of relaxing and some DIY on her new flat but is instead hijacked and cajoled by an old friend to reform her old college band to play at her wedding.

Reluctant to take part but feeling unable to say no, Bonnie finds herself putting together a band that comprises of her ex boyfriend, her best friend, a man who has a crush on Bonnie, an ex school pupil and his father and a new acquaintance with too much charm and a talent for stirring up trouble.

As the weeks progress and the group comes together for the practice sessions feelings run high. And soon Bonnie finds herself standing in a friends flat, alone except for a dead body lying in a pool of blood, deciding what she must do next.

It wasn't a bad read, things moved quite well, I felt a couple of loose ends weren't properly tied up and it was hard to feel too much sympathy for Bonnie at times. A key point of the plot took quite a leap of imagination to believe and the ending does leave you wanting to know just that little bit more (in a good way).

27. Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty

Not quite what I expected but very good.

Laura's nine year old daughter is killed in a hit and run accident and her life is turned upside down. The aftermath of losing Betty reignites some of the hostilities she faced during her divorce from Betty's father and tears her life, family and sanity apart. When the death is ruled to be an accident Laura decides to take revenge on the man who killed her child by taking away the things he loves. But nothing goes quite to plan.

I was expecting a more typical revenge story but as it turns out it is more a study of grief and of the breakdown of a family. The actual revenge angle doesn't feature until close to the end of the book and is ultimately very different to what Laura has allowed herself to imagine. The book is very well written and has some moments of absolute clarity that show the author perfectly understands the subjects she is tackling.

Wow.. the last three books sound really good..
but, I hope that you feel better very soon..

28. After the Party by Lisa Jewell

Hated it. Hatehatehate.

I've found that Lisa Jewell's books have been getting steadly worse for me and had decided I probably wouldn't read any more of them before this one came out. I only bought this one because it is a follow up to her first book, which I remember liking. It's some of the same characters as the first book but set twelve years after that one finished.

The old characters aren't that likable now and the new ones are hard work because the author can't seem to make her own mind up about them. One character seems to undergo an almost schizophrenic personality change halfway through the book and then switches rapidly back and forth each time we see him. Another goes from being comfortably well off to being in financial crisis over a packet of blueberries and then seemingly back to rich and happy again.

And there is one piece of absolutely disgraceful and appallingly written bit of rubbishy nonsense that could not and would not possibly happen in a professional medical environment. A doctor was able to diagnose something within 30 seconds of the patient being in the room and without any sign of tests being done or examinations being made. The subject was handled with all the sensitivity of a brick in the face and nobody seemed to question how this doctor could magically know the things he did. There was certainly no reference to him doing tests or examinations in the book.

It was this part of the book that affirmed my decision to give up on this author once and for all and also made me decide to cart all the other books I have by her to the charity shop the first chance I get.

Awful, awful book, don't bother with it.

#102 Can you just clarify that, J? Are you saying you didn't like After the Party?

#103 - Well I didn't want to put it as bluntly as that to start off with, but no, I didn't like it.

Straightforward is good.. I like straightforward...

29. House Rules by Jodi Picoult

This is another author I keep swearing I will never read again but I saw her speaking about this book and it made me interested.

The interview I saw tried to put a big spin on the vaccination debate that runs around Autism and Aspergers but there isn't a great deal of that in the book once you read it.

Jacob Hunt is 18 years old and has Aspergers. His mother, Emma, has fought hard all his life to help him fit in and be accepted and his younger brother Theo has struggled betweel loyalty to his brother and a need to belong in his own right. When Jacob becomes involved in a murder case and swiftly becomes the number one suspect the traits of his Aspergers are suddenly exposed as the same traits as guilt and Emma and Theo struggle to help Jacob as they can't be sure of his innocence.

Mostly this is a typical Picoult book, she has the differing POV's from the various characters, things are hinted at but only slowly revealled, there's the unique selling point/big media issue plot and some of the characters have the "what's in this for me" feelings of guilt (this time when Theo thinks his own life would be easier if his brother went to prison).

What's not here this time is the Picoult twist or a straightforward ending (unless the information kept from the reader was the twist this time or unless it was the thing that was so obvious to me that I'm sure she actually explains it to the reader if not to most of the characters until close to the end).

And I liked the lack of twist. I'd have prefered the information though.

This one gets a passable 3 stars and has me considering that I might have been a tad harsh to say never again after the last one I read (whose name I forget but it had the little girl, Willow, with the brittle bones).

That one was Handle With Care, J, and I know just what you mean about Ms Picoult. Now I don't know whether to get this one or not but I bet I grab it at the airport when we go away next. To be fair, the only one I thought was awful was Change of Heart - the one about 'would you take the heart of the guy who murdered your husband and child in order to keep your other child alive?' Apart from the fact that I'm pretty sure they couldn't give an adult's heart to a child, I could never see what the dilemma was meant to be; if I thought it would save my kid's life I'd take it without being asked and with my bare hands.

It was the way they were all so alike that got to me. Even the "what would you do?" tag line got on my nerves after awhile and the twists stopped being a surprise and felt like a gimmick.

And yes, me too, with the heart.

I agree. What started out as some quite interesting dilemmas has now turned into the same old same old.

30. Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright and David Leslie Johnson

I hope the film is better. This wasn't bad, the idea being that the wolf in the story is actually a werewolf tormenting a village and Red Riding Hood is actually a girl named Valerie whose sister was the wolf's most recent victim. But it could have been a lot better than it was.

I gave this book: 2 stars

If it's the film out right now being aimed at Twilight lovers; from what I heard the film probably isn't much better, if not worse...

It is the film that's out right now. Shame.

31. Monster Love by Carol Topolski

Reread. Still just as compelling and just as upsetting the second time around. Recommend it to the brave.

32. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Reread. Still enjoyed it very much.

Josey Cirrini is startled to find a woman hiding in her closet, not least because that's where she keeps her secret supplies of sweet foods, travel magazines and romance novels hidden from her disapproving mother.

When Della Lee Baker refuses to leave the closet, claiming she needs to hide out for a few weeks before she heads north, Josey reluctantly agrees to let her stay. What's one more secret hidden in the closet after all?

But Della Lee has a curious effect on Josey and her household. With maid Helena trying to track down the "bad thing" she feels has arrived in the house and her mother Margaret determined to keep Josey in her place, more servant than daughter, Josey finds herself making her first real friends. First Della Lee, then Chloe Finley who works at the courthouse and makes the best grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches ever, and finally Adam, the mailman Josey has had a crush on for three years.

Josey suddenly finds that it isn't to late to change your life and that magic can happen to everyone, every single day, if only you are prepared to let it.

The characters are mostly lovely, although one are two are not quite so charming.

I really enjoyed this book and I wish that some of Chloe's magic would rub off on me. Having books magically appear when I need them would be a lot of fun and save me a fortune.

I gave this book: 4 stars

33. Can't Let Go by Jane Hill

Reread, still very, very good.

34. The Waiting Room by F.G. Cottam

Very, very, very creepy!

Julien Creed is an ex soldier currently hosting the most popular paranormal ghosthunter programme in the UK. What the public don't realise is that Creed does not believe in ghosts and his show is all camera trickery and fakes.

Creed doesn't see any reason to change this formula and can't believe his luck when Martin Stride, a retired but still famous and incredibly wealthy rock star arives in his office asking for help to rid his property of the ghostly happenings that centre around a disused railway waiting room located about half a mile away from his remote country house.

But when Creed spends a night in the waiting room while trying to persuade Martin to let him film his show there he is subjected to an experience that changes both his beliefs and his entire life. And as Creed and his team research the waiting room and the long dead people who haunt it, Martin and his family find themselves fleeing for their own sanity and perhaps even their lives.

I gave this book: 5 stars

35. The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Very, very, very creepy!

When a group of four friends go on a reunion hiking/camping holiday in a remote part of Sweden it should be a time to renew friendships formed years earlier at university.

Instead the friends stuggle to find anything they still have in common and tensions run high amongst the group. Then bad weather and a series of accidents lead the group to make a decision they will all regret. They stray from the planned route into unchartered forest in the hope of a shortcut and instead find a string of horrors, starting with a corpse hanging in a tree, so badly mutilated it is impossible to tell what it once was.

Other horrors follow, a strange house filled with odd relics, terrible nightmares and visions, strange noises in the woods and finally the realisation that something ancient and evil is hunting them through the forests.

I really enjoyed this book. It did remind me of Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon with its forest setting and surreal villian but the writing was different and the story was very, very good.

I gave this book: 4 1/2 stars

#117 I have to read The Ritual. Amazon, here I come!

#118 - sorry. But it's worth it. On the strength of this book I had to go out and buy Apartment 16, which I am reading now (not as good so far but I've only just started it and nothing has happened yet).

#117 oh no, I am scared now just reading your review. I'm way too much of a scaredy-pants to read that :-

#120 - I love a good scare and this one had it all.

But all the talk of evil things in the forest (human and otherwise) have ruined our walks through the local woods :-)

#118 - Apartment 16 suddenly got a lot creepier!

Creepy is good.. The Waiting Room sounds very good!

36. Harbour by John Ajvide Lindqvist

When Anders and Cecilia's daughter Maja goes missing on the ice during a family day out it destroys their marriage and almost destroys Anders sanity. Maja has vanished into thin air and no body is ever found. Two years after her disappearance Anders returns to the place where she vanished and realises that she is not gone. But he faces a battle to bring her back that leads him to discover the secrets long hidden by the people of Domero.

This book was creepy in places and kept me guessing as to what was going on. It is difficult to describe or classify as a genre though. At times it had some horrible moments and some strange ones but it also had a lot of ordinary moments that still managed to be compelling. It was well written, I liked most of the characters and the ending was the right one.

I gave this book: 4 1/2 stars

How did I manage to get 30 messages behind here? Must do better at keeping up in future!

Yay for John Ajvide Lindqvist. I love how his books are never straight up horror, but very creepy. I love him so much I buy his books in German (I usually only read English and Dutch) because they come out much, much faster there. If only I could read Swedish....

Jody, The Ritual arrived this morning! There's a bit of me that would like to save it to take on holiday but it's maybe a bit 'cold weather' for that - plus I just read the prologue and I don't think I'm going to be able to wait that long.

That one sounds good! drat it..

#125 - I like that about him too and I've been wishing I could read Swedish as well.

#126 - I couldn't wait when I read the prologue, I needed to know what happened. Apartment 16 isn't living up to expectations sadly but I'm keeping on with it in the hope that it gets better again. I put it aside to read Harbour but I've picked it up again now. It's having its creepy moments but it's weirdness is dragging it out a bit and making it hard work.

#127 - It's very good. One for your wishlist?

37. The Haunting of James Hastings by Christopher Ransom

I was given this book (otherwise I wouldn't have read it) and at first it was very good, much better than The Birthing House but by the end it had gone downhill very badly.

There were some very creepy moments in the book and it could have been very, very good. But then the same schizophrenic story-changing writing style that ruined The Birthing House came into play and the ending was confusing and weird. The same problems came into play and Ransom kept changing the story unnecessarily as though he couldn't quite decide which way he wanted it to go and what or who he wanted the characters to be.

I wouldn't recommend it especially.

I gave this book: 1 star

38. The Thrift Book by India Knight

Advice and tips on how to live a thriftier and more appreciative life.

Not all of this is about saving money or being cheap, instead it encourages people to appreciate what they have and to open their eyes to how wasteful we can be without thought. But it's not judgey or preachy about it and the writer still admits to having her wasteful moments too.

There's a lot of good information and a fantastic recipe for vegetable curry (made it last night and it is delicious!) and I would really recommend it to anyone who wants to make a few small changes to their life and their finances.

It is addictive though, it's a bit of a cross between The Good Life and the renewed interest in crafts, customising things and the 'Make Do and Mend' ethic coupled with a guide to surviving the credit crunch etc and I've found that once I started to think about these things, especially the 'upcycling' of old items and recent bargains from ebay or charity shops it's hard to stop. You get the bug and as a result I have a few projects on the go involving an old wooden stool and a great, handmade childs desk (£9.99 in the YMCA shop) that will soon look like very pricy designer items (I will post photo's).

And in the spirit of the book, I bought my copy on ebay for 99p!

39. House Proud by Danielle Proud

Another 99p bargain (from The Works, saving £16 on the cover price) this time giving tips for projects to make, everything from making aprons and oven gloves from her old dresses to doing up furniture she found at auction.

It's a help with the projects I am doing (although I'm not sure about trying her tip for scraping off old paint with a bit of broken glass, I'm a bit too accident prone for that!)

But the photo's were lovely and the projects are interesting and do-able.

40. How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran

I loved this book and it scared Andrew when I read bits out to him.

At first I wasn't going to buy it because Waterstones had it in the humour section and I was expecting it to be a bit of celebrity fluff.

It wasn't. It was funny and serious and clever and very well written and Caitlin is very, very likable and actually quite wise.

I finished the book very much wishing that Caitlin and her family (all of them, not just the husband and children but her parents and siblings and the stupid new dog as well) would move onto our street and be my friends.

I really hope she writes something else (bookwise) soon.

41. The Hidden Child by Camilla Lackberg

Another Scandinavian crime book, the first I have read by this author, although it is not the first in the series featuring Erica Falck and Patrik Hedstrom, a husband and wife team who are a police detective and a crime writer respectively.

The plot focused on the discovery of some diaries, a child's blood spattered vest and a Nazi war medal in the possessions of Erica's mother after her death.

Erica is supposed to be writing a new novel after a year of maternity leave but cannot let the mystery go. She feels the items are the key to help her finally understand her cold and remote mother.

However when the people she turns to in an attempt to find out more are murdered one by one her husband Patrik and his colleagues are drawn into the mystery too.

I worked out most of the plot and the identity of the killer and there were some loose ends, but I still enjoyed the book. It was a quick read and the characters were likable.

I would read more by the author if I happen across a book.

42. 1222 by Anne Holt

Another Scandinavian crime series, this one featuring Hanne Wilhelmsen, and again it's the first one I have read by this author and it's out of series order.

Hanne is on her way to Bergen when the train she is travelling on crashes into concrete at the mouth of a tunnel. Severe weather holds off any rescue attempt but the survivers are lucky, a hotel is nearby and there are several doctors on the train to help with any injuries. Amazingly, only the driver is killed in the crash.

However on their first night at the hotel the passengers discover that they may not be as lucky as they first thought. A murder is committed and is followed by a second. Some of the passengers succome to their injuries and existing health problems. Rumours of a mysteries additional carriage being added to the train, armed guards and the locked top floor of the hotel cause alarm and mistrust amongst the survivers.

And Hanne is reluctantly called upon to help solve the mystery and stop the murderer before he can strike again.

I liked this one very much, I did guess a bit of the plot so one surprise revelation wasn't a surprise, but I liked the characters and the writing style and I will be reading more by the author.

43. Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

This one seemed really weird when I started reading it and it took me a while to work out why. The chapters aren't in her usual style of being told in the voice of one character or another.

The story is of Cassie, found in a graveyard by new LAPD recruit Will, who is half American Indian and half white and struggling to fit in with either culture.

Cassie is suffering from amnesia and it takes a report in the press for her husband to come forward. Everybody is stunned when the man who comes to claim her turns out to be Alex Rivers, America's most famous movie star at the time.

Cassie cannot remember her life with Alex but is stunned to find a world of expensive clothes, stunning mansion houses and movie premiers.

But her life with Alex was not quite the way he has described it to her. As her memory slowly returns she realises this dream life may well have been a living nightmare and Will is the only person she can turn to and trust to believe her story.

I didn't like this one. The obligatory What Would You Do tag line seems obvious in this one, there was no big legal drama and even the moral one didn't seem to be at the fore of the story.

Will wasn't really made the most of in the story and neither were his family. And the fact that Cassie, short for Cassandra, spent half the book worrying about not being believed made her name very irritating to me. Yes her name is Cassandra and nobody will believe her, very clever. It got on my nerves, especially when the author didn't trust her readers to spot that themselves and so couldn't resist pointing it out to us.

Wow, you've read so much recently. I'm enjoying reading your reviews.

44. Twelve Days by various authors

Collection of short stories inspired by the Twelve Days of Christmas song.

Meh.

45. The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Very, very creepy. Loved every word.

46. The Resident by Francis Cottam

From the recent film. Complete rubbish.

When ER doctor Juliet leaves her novelist husband Jack she struggles to find an affordable new home but then stumbles across the perfect apartment. But her happiness soon turns to fear when mysterious goings on take a sinister and deadly turn.

This should have been good, but it was so boring. All of it was predictable, the characters were dull and one dimensional, I didn't care about any of them and I could have told you the end almost from the very beginning.

This was the "it'll do" book in a 3 for 2 offer when I couldn't find anything more suitable.

Wow you are doing some big volumes of reading lately! Great.

47. The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern

Not as good as it could have been.

I liked the idea. Tamara Goodwin is forced to leave her priviledged life in Dublin and move to the countryside to live with relatives. She befriends the man driving the mobile library and discovers a padlocked book on the shelves. When she is finally able to open it she finds nothing but empty pages, which are mysteriously filled overnight, in her handwritting, describing events that haven't happened to her yet. When she realises the diary can predict a possible version of tomorrow, which she then has the power to change as it happens, her life changes in a way that she never expected.

It could have been so much better than it was. Obviously when you choose a book about a psychic, self-writing diary you have to suspend belief a little bit but as it turned out that wasn't the hardest thing to believe in about the book. A whole weird cycle of events, some taking place now, some having happened in the past, are quite hard to believe in some places.

This book is the best I have read by the author (I had two given as gifts at the same time, PS I Love You was given away unfinished and Where Rainbows End had a big flaw in the construction that still annoys me today) but I wouldn't recommend anybody rushing out to read it.

I gave this book: 1 1/2 stars

Hi Jody...! I think I had lost you for a bit.. glad to see that you have shown up where I can find you..
The Woman in Black.. me too! loved it .

Ah, sorry to hear The Book of Tomorrow wasn't better. Sounds like such a good idea - she should have handed it over to someone who could write, eh? Hope the next one is better!

*waves hello to mckait*

#143 - Amber, yes she should! Along with all her other ideas, a couple of them have been really good ideas that she hasn't quite pulled off. It's a shame.

Never mind, I've just had a reread of one of my favourites and I'm partway though two other good ones (The Passage by Justin Cronin and the excellent At Home by Bill Bryson) so TBOT is just a blip on my reading chart right now.

48. Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion and Jewelry by Leanne Shapton

Had to interupt some other reading to reread this book, following a discussion about it on another website where I recommended it and someone else said "Oh no, I hated that book!"

Hated it!? Not just didn't like it, or didn't get it, or thought it was alright but a bit over-hyped. They hated it!

I had to reread it and love it all over again just to make up for the injustice of that comment.

#48: I had to reread it and love it all over again just to make up for the injustice of that comment.

I completely understand that! :)

49. The Passage by Justin Cronin

I loved this book! I was completely prepared to hate it and for months I dismissed it, without even reading it, but I was very wrong to do so. It's wonderful.

I can't even start to describe the story because nothing does it justice. I've seen it described as being like The Stand and it does have similarities.

I loved the story, loved the characters, loved the ideas and I cannot wait for the second book (The Twelve) to come out as well. Especially because the last words of The Passage include a clue to what might come next, implying that something terrible has just started to happen to some of the characters but leaving you to speculate on what the outcome was for them. Already the need to know is driving me mad and if The Twelve comes out here in hardback first I'm going to have to break my 'only-buy-Stephen-King-books-in-hardback rule'and buy it, because I can't wait for the paperback.

I was disappointed when I finished reading it because I wanted it to go on and on.

I gave this book: 5 stars

Wow, sounds like a great one. Glad you loved it, shame when these ones end isnt it!

50. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo

Another Scandinavian crime book, this one lent to me by a colleague.

Detective Harry Hole (complete with typical detective flaws - alcohol abuse, ex-partner he still loves, trouble with authority etc) becomes lead detective on a case involving missing persons reports and murders dating back several years.

All the reports have something in common. The missing or murdered person is always a mother, taken or killed following a snowfall and there has been a snowman built looking towards every crime scene.

Harry is the country's serial killer expert and works with beautiful and sexy new colleague, Katrine Bratt, to try and learn the identity of the Snowman, who has Harry's ex-partner Rakel in his sights as the next victim.

It was a good book, I liked Harry and the other lead characters, but I guessed who the murderer was very early on in the book. I would read more by this author though.

I gave this book: 3 stars

I quite enjoyed The Snowman too, Jody. For some reason, at the time I bought it Waterstones had an offer on Nesbo's The Redbreast at the time which was cheaper in hardback than most other books in paperback so I bought that too and it's still sitting on Mount TBR. When I finally get round to it I'll let you know how it was.

Please. I think I have one of his others lurking somewhere too, but there are several mount TBR's in the house and I'm not sure which one to search first. I don't think it's The Redbreast though.

I've just had The Minds Eye by Hakan Nesser delivered from Waterstones. I'd put it on my wishlist just for a reminder to look at it in the shop if I was short of inspiration on day. But Andrew must be bored out there because he keeps sending books. I was watching one on ebay, I'd mentioned one on facebook and he ordered two from Waterstones wishlist (the other is After Dark by Haruki Murakami and I don't remember putting that on my wishlist but it's there and it looks good).

51. The Radley's by Matt Haig

I liked this book, but the ending wasn't quite up to the rest of the book and I think there were a couple of loose ends I would have liked to have seen cleared up.

The Radley's appear to be a normal family, Peter and Helen are both doctors, although Helen appears to have given up her career to raise the children and take up painting. They live in a nice house in a nice village. And it's not until their teenage daughter Clara is attacked on her way home from a party that the secret Peter and Helen have kept from everyone, including Clara and her older brother Rowan, is revealed. The Radley's are abstaining vampires trying to fit into normal society. But Clara's attack leads to the arrival of Peter's brother, Will, a vampire with no intentions of abstaining from anything, and the police arrive shortly afterwards and the Radley's may not be able to keep their secret any more.

It's better than Twilight. And it has some funny moments, but at times it tries to hard. It's being made into a film and sometimes it reads as though it has been written for that purpose. But I liked the characters and it was a quick, fun read.

52. The Midwife's Confession by Diane Chamberlain

I liked this book but I guessed just about all the big revelations.

Tara, Emerson and Noelle have been friends from college and believe they know each other inside out. But when Noelle commits suicide Tara and Emerson are forced to confront secrets they never could have imagined she was keeping, secrets that could destroy their families and their friendship forever.

There were some loose ends and the event that sparks Noelle's decision to commit suicide at the moment she is quite minor when it is explained. It hardly seems like something that would push such a resolute woman to her death.

It was a good quick read with characters that I liked though and Noelle was interesting with all of her secrets.

53. The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

Zoe and Jake are caught in an avalanche while skiing on holiday. Shaken and frightened, but with only minor injuries, they slowly make their way back to the nearest village and the hotel where they are staying, only to find it deserted. With the thread of second avalanche hanging over them they fear that the villagers and tourists have been evacuated and they have been forgotten and set out in search of rescue. But the mountain is foggy, dark and confusing and Zoe and Jake soon begin to fear that they are beyond normal help. And it isn't long before they both begin to experience visions and odd sightings that make them fear something sinister is taking place around them.

This was an odd book but on the whole I liked it. Throughout the book the author maintained a very dark atmosphere that was actually quite unsettling and scary in places. But there were a couple of jarring moments in the dialog between Jake and Zoe that felt forced and false. But they were mostly at the start of the book and by the end it felt more settled and realistic.

54. The Treehorn Trilogy by Florence Parry Heide

Won as part of the LTER programme.

A set of three books in a box set, starting with The Shrinking of Treehorn, then Treehorn's Treasure and finally Treehorn's Wish. Beautifully presented and a real delight to have received.

Treehorn is a young boy surrounded by preoccupied adults and odd friends. In the first book he finds that he is becoming smaller and smaller, in the second he finds an interesting way to save money and in the third he makes a birthday wish, all with quite remarkable consequences that go almost unnoticed by those around him.

BRE has very much enjoyed the stories and illustrations and I was happy to rediscover Treehorn (I read Shrinking at school) and continue his adventures in the other two books, which I hadn't read before.

I also have to say that Pomegranate (Pomegranate Kids is their offshoot) are officially my favourite LTER contributor. My copy of The Treehorn Trilogy came with a catalogue of the Autumn collection and a lovely bookmark of Edward Gorey illustrations. This is the second LTER book I have received from them and the previous one also came with some lovely extra bits.

I gave this book: 5 stars (and 5 stars more to Pomegranate too)

55. The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas

A reread.

When a guest at a barbecue party slaps a young boy who is not his own child the repercussions of his actions are felt by everyone who witnessed it.

This is quite a harsh book and on my first read of it I found it very difficult to like any of the characters.

This time around I have been a little more forgiving towards characters I really did not like the first time around. I was actually surprised to find myself reading it again, but I found that I had been thinking about it off and on for a few weeks and then realised that a TV adaptation was about to be shown, and that prompted me to give the book a second chance.

There's something about the writing, more than the characters themselves, that drew me back in.

I still liked Anouk and Manoli (the only characters I really took too last time) but I found I had a more sympathetic reaction to Rosie this time around and I was more forgiving of Hector, felt warmer towards Aisha. This in part may be because in the TV adaptation they have changed her ethnicity and I felt surprised to be so annoyed and provoked by it. It's made much of in the book, so the change felt very wrong on the screen. But mostly I felt pity for them all, no matter what success they had in their lives, what achievements they felt they had made, they all seemed so thwarted and resentful, so self-righteous and unhappy.

If you read it in the wrong mood the book can feel harsh, as I said, and at times it was quite depressing to think that the characters lives had just been a long line of poverty, promiscuity, aggression, drink, drugs, unhappy sex, violence, adultery, resentment and dislike.

The teenage characters were likeable, one much more than another, but you could see that their lives of parties, exams, drugs, first loves and sex was leading them down the same path that the adults in the book had previously taken and led them to frustrated lives with varying career and relationship success.

I think now, I will read it again. It does seem to be a book that provokes a strong reaction even second time around.

Haven't been updating and am sure I have forgotten a couple, but these are the ones I do remember to complete 2011's list.

11.22.63 by Stephen King
Toxic Parents by Susan Forward
The Legacy by Kirsten Tranter
The Little House by Phillipa Gregory

Link to new list for 2012

http://www.librarything.com/topic/130107#3138160