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Andrea's 2010 reads


~Andrea~

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Books read 2010:

 

God has a dream - Desmond Tutu (27/12/09 - 31/01/10)

The Magic Cottage - James Herbert (4/01/10 - 16/01/10)

Quantum - Manjit Kumar (16/01/10 - 19/02/10)

E-ffrindiau - (03/02/10 - 19/04/10)

Mister God This is Anna (22/02/10 - 06/03/10)

Tales of Beedle The Bard - J K Rowling (12/03/10 - 14/03/10)

The Seance - John Harwood (16/03/10 - 04/04/10)

Man and Boy - Tony Parsons (05/04/10 - unfinished)

Assassin's Apprentice - Robin Hobb (11/04/10 - 29/05/10)

The Quantum Universe (13/04/10 - 11/07/10)

Plot and Structure (19/04/10 - 18/05/10)

Pet Sematary - Stephen King (29/05/10 - 20/06/10)

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (21/06/10 - 26/06/10)

Strangers on a Train - Patricia Higsmith (11/07/10 - 7/8/10)

The Promise of Happiness - Justin Cartwright (8/8/10 - unfinished)

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card (12/08/10 - 3/09/10)

Great Turning Points of British History - BBC (4/09/10 - )

It's not what you think - Chris Evans (16/09/10 - 8/10/10)

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (17/10/10 - )

 

Total books completed: 15

Edited by ~Andrea~
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Unread books on the bookshelf:

 

Acquired pre 2009

 

1 Minnette Walters - The shape of snakes

2 Minnette Walters - Acid Row

3 Logic - A very short introduction

4 Wilkie Collins The Woman in White

5 Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales (modern translation)

6 From the Holy Mountain - William Dalrymple

7 Alice through the looking glass - Lewis Carrol

8 Joanna Trollope - The men and the girls

10 Damaged - Cathy Glass

11 The Essential tales of Chekhov

12 Othello

13 The Merchant of Venice

14 The face - Dean Koontz

15 Julius Caesar

16 Twelfth night

17 A Winter's tale

 

Begin year size: 20

End year size: 16

 

Acquired 2009

 

1 The Soldier's return - Melvyn Bragg (June)

2 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Coleridge (xmas)

3 Collected works of Tennyson (December)

4 The Secret of Crickely Hall - James Herbert (December)

5 About Time - Paul Davies (December)

6 It - Stephen King (xmas)

7 The Great Turning points of British History (xmas)

8 The Making of Modern Britain - Andrew Marr (xmas)

 

Begin year size: 17

End year size: 8

 

Books acquired 2010:

1 Arthur C Clarke - A Fall of moondust (Feb)

2 Tess Gerritson - The Apprentice (4 Dec)

3 The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's (11 Dec)

4 The Diary of Blodwen Jones (11 Dec)

5 Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles (16 Dec)

6 Elizabeth Kostova - The Historian (25 Dec)

7 Donna Tartt - The Little Friend (25 Dec)

8 - Why I am Still an Anglican - Caroline Chartres (25 Dec)

 

 

Begin year size: 0

End year size: 8

 

Total Begin year size: 38

Max size: 38

Min size: 27

Current Size: 33

End year size:33

Edited by ~Andrea~
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Wish list:

 

Ambrose, David - Superstition

Auel, Jean - The Clan of the Cave Bear

Beah, Ishmael - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

Bradbury, Ray - Something Wicked this way comes

Bradbury, Ray - The Martian Chronicles

Barker, Clive - Weaveworld

Challis, Sarah - Footprints in the sand

Chesterton, G K - Orthodoxy

Conan Doyle, Arthur - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Conran, Shirley - Savages

Coupland, Douglas - Microserfs/JPod

Du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca

Du Maurier, Daphne - The House on the Strand

L'Engle, Madeleine - A Wrinkle in Time

Greene, Grahame - Brighton Rock

Greene, Grahame - The Third Man & The Fallen Idol

Haugen, Gary (IJM) - Just Courage

Highsmith, Patricia - The Talented Mr Ripley

Hinton, Susan- Rumble Fish

Hodgson, Burnett Frances - The Secret Garden

Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon

Koontz, Dean - The Mask

Koontz, Dean - From The Corner Of His Eye

Koontz, Dean - False Memory

Koontz, Dean - Odd Thomas

Kostova, Elizabeth - The Historian

London, Jack - White Fang

Neville, Adam - Apartment 16

Milne, A. A. Winnie the Pooh - complete short stories and poems

Mitchell, Margaret - Gone With the Wind

Niffenegger, Audrey - The Time Travellers Wife

Pargeter, Edith - The Heaven Tree

Rayner, Jay - The Oyster House Siege

de Saint-Exupery, Antoine - The Little Prince

Tolkein - LOTR

Trueman, Terry - Stuck in neutral

Trigell, Jonathan - Boy A

Wheatley, Dennis - The Haunting of Toby Jugg

Wyndham, John - Chocky

Wyndham, John - The Kraken awakes

Ruiz Zafon, Carlos - The Shadow Of The Wind

Ruiz Zafon, Carlos - The Angel's Game

Ryan, Carrie - The Forest Of Hands & Teeth

Zusak, Markus - The Book Thief

Edited by ~Andrea~
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Poems/short stories read in 2010

 

poems

Tennyson - The Lady of Shallot

Tennyson - The Two voices

 

short stories

Guy de Maupassant - On the River

" " - Simon's Father

 

Chekhov -

 

Currently reading: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Edited by ~Andrea~
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The magic cottage is becoming very gripping. I'm half way through and keen to read on. The Desmond Tutu book is also very interesting, although I'm using it as more of an occasional book.

 

As always I wish I could read all of my books simultaneously and am already thinking about what to read next. I think I'll go for a non-fiction, probably Quantum, all about the development of quantum mechanics. It looks fascinating and I'm having to be very disciplined not to want to start it right now :D

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The Magic Cottage sounds intriguing, Andrea! Looking forward to your review :D.

 

I'll second Kimmy's recommendation of Armstrong, Andrea, she's so much fun! I also read a Tess Gerritsen for the first time this year which I really enjoyed, The Bone Garden.

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Crumbs! I've got most of the books on your wish-list, Andrea! Plus, The Magic Cottage is really great. I've read it twice (but not for a loooong time).

 

Hope you're really well. :D

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Is The Magic Cottage something about a mother-in-law/daughter-in-law conflict? I think I might have read that, many years ago if so, although it's not my usual sort of thing!

 

ETA: No, it's not that from the blurb. I wonder what I'm thinking of?! :D

Edited by Janet
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I finished The Magic Cottage yesterday and really enjoyed it, although I got a bit frustrated at the pace at the start and wanted things to get moving quicker. I also thought the final showdown scene went on a bit too long, all the reveals had been done and I just wanted it to wrap up.

 

That said, it was a fab read, the ending gets a bit OTT and carried away with itself, but I really enjoyed the writing. I'm really starting to like JH. Look forward to reading more.

 

Started Quantum by Manjit Kumar last night which gives the history of quantum theory. I think it'll be fascinating, if a bit mind-bending :lol:

 

From Amazon:

'An exhaustive and brilliant account of decades of emotionally charged discovery and argument, friendship and rivalry spanning two world wars.' Steven Poole, Guardian --Guardian, 15th November 2008

 

 

'Kumar is an accomplished writer who knows how to separate the excitement of the chase from the sometimes impenetrable mathematics. In Quantum he tells the story of the conflict between two of the most powerful intellects of their day: the hugely famous Einstein and the less well-known but just as brilliant Dane, Niels Bohr.'

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finished God has a Dream by Desmond Tutu last night. I thought it was really good but I rushed the last few chapters and will probably read them again. It's a book to reflect and ponder on rather than just read. I would definitely I'd like to read more by him.

 

The Quantum book is also very good. I'm about half way through.

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It's basically about transfiguring our circumstances, be they personal or political or whatever. I suppose it's about transformation really, how we can allow God to transform our circumstances and our world. He talks about lots of things, forgiveness, reconciliation, taking timeout with God etc. And of course there is a lot of South Africa in this book, as an example of such transformation.

 

From Amazon:

 

Desmond Tutu shows each of us how to transform our pain and sorrow into hope and confidence in the future', Nelson Mandela .'I have the highest regard for my good friend Desmond Tutu and admire him for the humane principles he upholds', The Dalai Lama .'God Has a Dream shows us how our personal and global suffering can be transformed into joy and redemption', Jimmy Carter, ex-US President and Nobel Peace Prize winner .'This book is a testimony to the shining spirit and unquenchable faith of Archbishop Tutu. It will inspire your heart', Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart .'Desmond Tutu is full of courage and faith in humanity's capacity for good...always the voice of inspiration', Mo Mowlem, MP

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It was. I think you'd like it Kate.

 

Last night i needed a break from quantum physics :D so I picked up my welsh reading book (for learners) which is a lot lighter. Even though it's in a different language it's at a level I'm very comfortable with, so I can read it to reinforce what I've learned so far, and pick up a few new words along the way. It's a very light story - about two welsh learners who strike up a friendship over the internet. It's just a series of emails between them chatting about their lives and families etc.

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Finished Quantum last night and I have to say it was absolutely brilliant! I've never read such a riveting and enthralling science book. To be fair, it's not just science it's a narrative history of the development of qunatum physics and focuses on a debate between Einstein and his rival, Bohr. The science bits are broken up enough by the story to make it very readable. It was great to meet all those famous names as well, like Einstein, Heisenberg and Schrodinger, to meet the personalities not just the scientists. It was fascinating to discover that Einstein struggled with maths and had to receive help developing his theory of relativity. A lot of the book takes place against the backdrop of WW2 as well; there's a good deal of drama here.

 

If you're at all interested in physics, and particularly in particle physics then I'd thoroughly recommend this. It's not just science, it's history and philosophy too.

 

I still don't understand quantum physics. But I'm all the more astonished by its weirdness and I've been very inspired to read more about it.

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Awesome, that sounds like it's RIGHT up my alley, I'll definitely be checking it out :lol: I love quantum physics and relativity.

Good stuff. I think you'll enjoy it. There's not much relativity in it to be fair, just a few passing mentions. The subjec poses interesting philosophical questions too, so it should be right up your street Noll!

 

@andrea what you make of Schr
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