vodkafan

Better late than never! Welcome to my 2019 reading experience. (k) denotes kindle ebook ® denotes book read primarily for research purposes keeping the same simple rating system this year: 1/5: I didn't like it 2/5: It was okay 3/5: I liked it 4/5: I really liked it 5/5: It was amazing! Books read in 2019 February Two Eggs On My Plate Oluf Reed Olsen (re-read) 3/5 April The Shivering Sands Victoria Holt 3/5 May The Bloody Ground Bernard Cornwell 3/5 Just Six Numbers Martin Rees 3/5 The Dragon Jane Gaskell 3/5 Devoted Ladies Molley Keane 4/5 Atlan Jane Gaskell ABANDONED Holes Louis Sachar 4/5 June Hot Milk Deborah Levy 5/5 Her Fearful Symmetry Audrey Niffeneger 4/5 Truth Or Dare Celia Rees 2/5 Long Way To A Small Angry Planet Becky Chambers BOOK MYSTERIOUSLY LOST POSSIBLY STOLEN! July Great Expectations Charles Dickens 4/5 August Normal People Sally Rooney 2/5 September The Viral Storm-Dawn of A New Pandemic Age Nathan D. Wolfe 3/5 The Stationmaster's Farewell Edward Marsden 2/5 If I Stay Gayle Foreman 1/5 October His Other Lover Lucy Dawson 3/5 November The Rosie Project Graeme Simsion 4/5 The Hourglass Factory Lucy Ribchester 3/5 December English Passengers Matthew Kneale 4/5

I think the giveaways have been quite inventive and unusual. Having said that, a book giveaway would excite me the most. I think it is fair that it is supporters only. I think monthly is great, but I can understand that may be hard to maintain. Four times a year would not be such hard work? Anything connected to books and writers would float my boat: plans of authors' houses; postcards and prints of authors or their birthplaces; books of course; tickets to book signings, book readings, and events etc ; pens, notepads, prints of cover art (this is unlikely, I know). Quirky desktop toys- did you know there is an action figure of Jane Austen? (I have one)

A bit late but happy reading for this year Angury and I am very interested to know that you are writing not one but two novels! You seem to be pushing steadily ahead, good for you!

I liked your review of Showboat World! You know, I can't remember the name of the blonde female character either! There is another Big Planet novel, but it is a completely different cast of characters in a different part of the world (because it is such a BIG planet).

Christmas has rushed up so fast. Just time to say hope you all have a happy time of it and thanks all those who looked in on my blog, I hope to be more active on everyone else's blogs next year. My reading has picked up a bit this year although I have been far less tolerant of books that didn't grab me! For those authors I say: "Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?" Bah Humbug!!

Alone In Berlin 4/5 Hans Fallada What was it like, as an ordinary German, to live under the Nazis in the 1930's and '40s? Only a handful of people are still alive who know first hand, so contemporary novels written by those who lived through it are valuable. This is such a book, and Hans Fallada was such a person. Within the first 10 pages I could completely taste the fear of the ordinary characters, fear of innocently doing something that might bring them to the attention of the authorities, or of being denounced by an informer who might be a next door neighbour or workmate with a grudge to bear. Otto and Anna Quangel, an elderly couple have lost their only son in the first battles of WW2. This sets Otto off on his own small course of resistance which can only have one outcome if he is caught- torture and death for everyone connected with them. Having read 1984 years ago I can see exactly where George Orwell got his ideas, which seemed a little far fetched and fantastical at the time, but I can see now that they were if anything understated. I would have kept reading anyway to the end of the book, but about three quarters of the way through a completely unexpected event happened, which I thought was such a master stroke of plotting it really made the whole book for me. After the story was finished there are appendices that show the history of the real life characters the story was based on, and of Fallada's own life history and how he came to write the novel, which were as interesting as the novel itself for me. A very good satisfying book.

I agree about The Graveyard Book! Gaiman does seem able to successfully straddle the minds of children and adults alike. Have you read American Gods? That is more "grown up" but also very poignant, I found.

Rivers Of London 4/5 Ben Aaranovitch This was such a well crafted book it drew me in and got me interested. It is obvious that the author really knows and likes London. A lot of my enjoyment came from visualising the places I knew. It was so enjoyable the way he made the Rivers into actual physical characters. That reminded me very much of American Gods. I also liked that Isaac Newton was the founder of both modern science and modern magic, because they are actually both related. (read The Golden Bough and Religion And The Decline of Magic if you are interested in why) The story never flagged and bounced along at a goodly pace. The author obviously knows a lot about police work as well, although that interested me less. The author is certainly not afraid to have bad and (irreversible) things happen to leading characters! Despite really liking this book I am not in a hurry to read the others unless they actually fall into my hands. Just glad to have finally got this one off the TBR pile!

Pure 4/5 Andrew Miller I enjoyed this book. It is one of a clutch of historical novels I have read recently where I really felt I was in that particular place and time. It is based on a real event that happened at the end of the 18th century, the destruction of an infamous Paris cemetery and the removal of the bones and bodies. The author has constructed his fictional story around this, "fleshing out the bones" (forgive the pun!). As such there is not a lot of plot really and the pace is languid. What tension there is happens because of the characters. I saw two out of the three major events coming a long time before they happened (The one I didn't foresee was a total surprise!). Good things came out of bad things and vice versa. But I did not mind the predictability as I was enjoying the writing.

Finished Pure and then zoomed through The Rivers Of London in one day. Both have been on my TBR for a long while so I feel good to have read those finally. I will do some reviews in a couple of days!

I like The Apprentice too! But this year especially they just seem a bunch of half wits.

I like the sound of quite a few of those! I don't suppose I can expect to see them on the DVD rack of ASDA anytime soon though....

Reading Pure by Andrew Miller at the moment. Really enjoying it but now nearly at the end.

I guess adverts are a necessary evil so that's fine. The other forum I go to is a wargaming forum (Lead Adventure Forum) and they have the advert bar on there too- but in their case all the adverts that appear are relevant to the forum, ie all by different companies manufacturing products for wargaming. So, can you choose which adverts you let on, or do you get a cheaper rate for letting them have a free rein? I just wondered. About the Patreon, I want to be a supporter but but would like to know more about exactly how it works. I have paypal, but I have never used it for regular monthly payments before, only one off purchases. So I am a bit nervous about that.

I watched half each of two different episodes of Killing Eve over the last few weeks and that's been about it. I have been thinking about getting Netflix, there seems to be interesting stuff on there.

Hi Frankie thanks yes it is. I am going to try not to neglect it!

I will try to keep my blog updated with reviews from now on.

Great to see so much Jack Vance in your TBR lol ! and oh yes have some flowers

Many thanks Hayley, I am full of admiration for your bravery!

I saw The Meg while on holiday! It was a no-brain-required fun flick.

I just read The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Thanks Michelle , I just joined LT and the group.

Wow I am very sad this had to happen, this has felt like a safe place and a home for a lot of years. I won't be joining the facebook group but I have some time to swap emails with people.

Son Of The Tree 2/5 Jack Vance Thanks to Hayley for alerting me to an early Jack Vance novel that I hadn't read! Situation now rectified. This was a very early one (1951) and although the trademark Vance tropes and world building are there in prototype form they are not as well developed, and his treatment of the main female character and females in general come across as a little chauvinistic if I am to be honest. Thankfully he loses this in his later novels. One thing which struck me strongly is the idea of planet Earth becoming semi mythical as we spread out through the galaxy and it's existence being doubted as a fairy tale, it's exact location lost. It cannot be a coincidence that this is the main premise of the Dumarest Saga series of books by EC Tubb. The two authors were certainly around at the same time, both writing at the same time, although the Dumarest books were written slightly later. Did they know each other ? Did Vance give Tubb permission to have that idea as something he wasn't going to use? I would like to find out.

Under The Eagle 1/5 Simon Scarrow Probably the worst book I have read so far this year! If you want a lad's book with basically a comic-book plot of WW2 soldiers dressed up in sandals and skirts masquerading as Romans of 43 ad, where the author can't even be bothered to use a few common knowledge Latin words (Gladius, Scutum, Pilum) to describe the Legionaries' kit, then this is the book for you!