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Andrea's reading in 2018


~Andrea~

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Previous logs:

 

2017  (10)

2016  (9)

2015  (10)
2014  (19)
2013  (21)
2012  (19)
2011  (17)
2010  (19)
2009  (23)
2008  (26)
2007  (21)

 

Completed:

 

How to be Champion - Sarah Millican

The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

The Witch Tree Symbol - Harriet Adams as Carolyn Keene

The Screwtape Letters - C S Lewis

Grinny - Nicholas Fisk

The Woman in the Window - A J Finn

Take No Farewell - Robert Goddard

Shaman's Crossing - Robin Hobb

Conclave - Robert Harris

Beneath the Bleeding - Val Mcdermid

Love is his Meaning - Keith Ward

Forest Mage - Robin Hobb

The Baby Laundry for Unmarried Mothers - Angela Patrick

The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan - abandoned

Locke and Key, Welcome to Lovecraft - Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez

 

Currently reading:
Secrets in the Dark - Frederich Buechner

The Philosopher and the Gospels - Keith Ward

The Memory Game - Nicci French

Edited by ~Andrea~
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Acquired pre 2018

  1. Minnette Walters - The shape of snakes
  2. Logic - A very short introduction
  3. Wilkie Collins The Woman in White
  4. Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales (modern translation)
  5. The Essential tales of Chekhov
  6. A Winter's tale
  7. Othello
  8. The Merchant of Venice
  9. Julius Caesar
  10. Twelfth night
  11. Collected works of Tennyson
  12. The Four Loves - C S Lewis
  13. Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan
  14. The Trial - Franz Kafka (audio)
  15. Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings - Edited by David Chalmers
  16. Godric - Frederick Buechner
  17. Ian Rankin - Watchmen
  18. Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities
  19. JoJo Moyes - The Girl You Left Behind
  20. The Road Less Traveled

  21. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

  22. My Favourite Wife - Tony Parsons

  23. C J Sansom : Dark Fire
  24. Joanne Harris - Five quarters of the orange
  25. Val McDermid - Beneath the Bleeding
  26. Robert Goddard - Take No Farewell
  27. Sarah Millican - How to be Champion
  28. Ronnie Corbett - High Hopes
  29. Robin Hobb - Shaman's Crossing
  30. Robin Hobb - Forest Mage
  31. Robin Hobb - Renegade's Magic

 

Begin year size: 31
End year size: 

 

Books acquired 2018:

  1. Harriet Adams (Carolyn Keene) - The Witch Tree Symbol
  2. Nicholas Fisk - Grinny
  3. A J Finn - The Woman in the Window
  4. Robert Harris - Conclave

 

End year size:

 

Total Begin year size: 31

Max size: 31
Min size:
Current Size:
End year size:

Edited by ~Andrea~
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The Wish List
Aaronovistch, Ben - Rivers of London recommended

Ambrose, David - Superstition

Alexander, Denis - creation or evolution: do we have to choose?
Beah, Ishmael - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Bradbury, Ray - Farenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray - Something Wicked this way comes
Barker, Clive - Weaveworld

Brother Lawrence - The Practice of the Presence of God

Buechner, Frederich - The Book of Bebb
Bugan, Carmen - Burying the Typewriter
Burton, Fiona - The Widow recommended

Challis, Sarah - Footprints in the sand
Chamberlaine, Diane - The Midwife's confession recommended
Cohen, Jeff - The Question of the Missing Head recommended

Conran, Shirley - Savages
Coupland, Douglas - Microserfs/JPod

Coben, Harlan - Six Years recommended
Du Maurier, Daphne - Rebecca
Du Maurier, Daphne - The House on the Strand
Dunant, Sarah - Transgressions (recommended)
Dick, Philip K - A Scanner Darkly

Faber, Michael - The Crimson petal and the White recommended

Foster, Richard - Celebration of Discipline

Gaarder, Jostein - Sophie's World

Green, John - Turtles All the Way Down recommended

Greene, Grahame - Brighton Rock
Greene, Grahame - The Third Man & The Fallen Idol

Haig, Matt - How to Stop Time recommended

Haugen, Gary (IJM) - Just Courage
Highsmith, Patricia - The Talented Mr Ripley
Hinton, Susan - Rumble Fish

Hobb, Robin - Fool's Assassin

Hobb, Robin - Fool's Quest

Hobb, Robin - Assassin's Fate

Hodgson, Burnett Frances - The Secret Garden
Hodkin, Michelle -The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Humphries, Alistair - Microadventures recommended

Jerome, Jerome K - My Life and Times

Jefferson Farjeon, J - Mystery in White recommended

Kasasian, M.R.C. - The Mangle Street Murders recommended (read by Emma Gregory)

Krauss, Nicole - Man walks into a Room recommended
Koontz, Dean - The Mask
Koontz, Dean - From The Corner Of His Eye
Koontz, Dean - False Memory

Lennox, John - God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

Lennox, John - Seven Days that Divide the World.

Lewis, C S - Till we have Faces

London, Jack - White Fang

Mandel, John - Station Eleven recommended

Marion, Issac - Warm Bodies recommended
McKinley, Robin - Sunshine
Mercer, Jeremy - Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs
Mitchell, Margaret - Gone With the Wind
Moran, Caitlin - How to be a Woman recommended

Moss, Sarah - Night Waking recommended
Moyes, Jojo - The Last Letter From Your Lover recommended
Neville, Adam - Apartment 16

Scott, Fitzgerald F - recommended

Semple, Maria - Where'd you go Bernadette - recommended
Phillips, Caryl - A Distant Shore (recommended)

Penny, Stef - The Tenderness of Wolves recommended
Rayner, Jay - The Oyster House Siege

Sachar, Louis - There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom - recommended

Taylor, Jodie - Just One Damned Thing After Another - recommended

Tremayne, S.K - The Ice Twins recommended

Trueman, Terry - Stuck in neutral
Trigell, Jonathan - Boy A

Verne, Jules - Journey to the Centre of the Earth - recommended

Wheatley, Dennis - The Haunting of Toby Jugg

Winter, Tom - Lost and Found recommended
Wyndham, John - The Kraken awakes
Watson, S J - Before I go to sleep
Ruiz Zafon, Carlos - The Shadow Of The Wind
Ruiz Zafon, Carlos - The Angel's Game
Ryan, Carrie - The Forest Of Hands & Teeth
Wroblewski, David - The story of Edgar Sawtelle

Zevin, Gabrielle - The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry recommended

Edited by ~Andrea~
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  • 2 weeks later...

51pi+Ds+3AL._AC_US218_.jpg

 

How to be Champion by Sarah Millican

 

I finished Sarah Millican's How to be Champion a few days ago and I loved it. I found it entertaining and inspiring. It's part autobiography and part self help book, as it's peppered with little pearls of wisdom throughout. Not only is it laugh out loud funny and a real joy to read, it's quite serious and poignant in parts too. I've always quite liked her stand-up, even if it is a little rude (as is this book) but after reading this I think I've upgraded to proper fan. She talks about her anxieties and self image problems, which I hadn't known much about prior to this, and comes across as a thoroughly decent human being (as well as being hilarious).

Edited by ~Andrea~
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Wow. I just went through my previous reading years and totalled up my books for the year. They've really tailed off the last three years! I guess that's not that surprising as the last three years have been fairly stressful one way and another. My LTR ended three years ago so I guess the pattern is more than a little to do with that. Probably initially it was the stress but more generally it's just been a massive routine change. I no longer read Saturday mornings for example and only sometimes read before bed (I stay up late instead watching TV instead!) Plus there was the odd audio book in some of those years (which I used to listen to in the car, so in parallel with my actual reading) and there hasn't been in the past three, but still, not enough to warrant such a big difference.

 

I think a three year slump is enough. I need to get back on track! I'm going to aim for 15 books this year, which is not as many as pre 2015 but would be a step in the right direction.

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1 hour ago, ~Andrea~ said:

I think a three year slump is enough. I need to get back on track! I'm going to aim for 15 books this year, which is not as many as pre 2015 but would be a step in the right direction.

 

 

I second the motion, a three year slump is enough indeed! Here's to a brilliant reading year in 2018, Andrea!! :clapping::readingtwo:    I hope life's treating you well these days :smile2:

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Thank you both :)

 

When I was going through my old threads to add the totals to each year, I noticed that at some point the emoticons have changed. So for example what was initially (I assume), a :) now shows as a :irked: and what must have been originally a scared one like :lurker: now shows as :rolleyes:

It makes some of those conversations look unintentionally sarcastic or aggressive!! It did make me smile.

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19 hours ago, ~Andrea~ said:

When I was going through my old threads to add the totals to each year, I noticed that at some point the emoticons have changed. So for example what was initially (I assume), a :) now shows as a :irked: and what must have been originally a scared one like :lurker: now shows as :rolleyes:

It makes some of those conversations look unintentionally sarcastic or aggressive!! It did make me smile.

 

We had some issues with emoticons when we upgraded the forum. I have no idea though why they have changed like that! That's kind of weird.

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41kPmUFCoUL._AC_US218_.jpg

 

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

 

From the blurb:
"My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."
In heaven, Susie Salmon can have whatever she wishes for - except what she most wants, which is to be back with the people she loved on earth. In the wake of her murder, Susie watches as her happy suburban family is torn apart by grief; as her friends grow up, fall in love, and do all the things she never had the chance to do herself. But as Susie will come to realize, even in death, life is not quite out of reach . . .

 

I liked this. It took me a while to get into it because when I first picked it up I found I wasn't in the mood for such a heavy topic, and kept avoiding this in favour of other reads. However as I got into it I found it wasn't particularly dark or depressing, although it is sad in place. However, it's not just sad, but hopeful too. It's well written and very easy to read. I enjoyed the prose very much. It's unusual too, being written from the point of view of a ghost. There was one bit I wasn't keen on but it didn't spoil the novel for me and overall I was glad I read it. I found it quite refreshing to read a crime novel where the focus is not on the perpetrator but on the victim, and the ones left behind, which is kind of how it should be really.

Edited by ~Andrea~
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51QcECALiHL._AC_US218_.jpg

 

The Witch Tree Symbol by Harriet Adams (writing as Carolyn Keene)

 

Blurb:

When a neighbor asks Nancy Drew to accompany her to an old uninhabited mansion, a new mystery opens up, and danger lurks on the second floor. Nancy finds a witch tree symbol that leads her to Pennsylvania Dutch country in pursuit of a cunning and ruthless thief.

 

This was a nostalgia/curiosity read as I used to read loads of these when I was young, but I can't remember them at all. I picked this one as I remember particularly enjoying it and reading it on holiday in Greece (my first holiday abroad) when I was eleven.
It was awful! :lol: I'm amazed I was able to read so many of these, though it certainly explains why I couldn't remember any of them! It's little more than a (rather ridiculous) plot told in very basic, functional language with no characterization. It's all told, not shown, there's a silly cliffhanger at the end of each chapter that immediately gets resolved on the following page and a massive infodump at the end.
OK that's quite a harsh review and perhaps unfair. I did read it to the end (it only took a couple of hours), and I did find it quite unintentionally amusing (and interesting since I devoured so many of them as a child). I can kind of see the appeal it must have had for me. The language is quite simple and easy to read (I was always put off by over-flowery language at that age) and I guess it was those silly cliffhangers that I enjoyed and which kept me reading. They are what they are I suppose. At least they got me reading, and with this one I'd have learned a little bit about the Amish.

 

I wonder if I'd find the famous five and secret seven books the same if I read them now too.

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2 hours ago, Athena said:

Shame the book wasn't as good as you remembered. I guess that happens sometimes with favourites from our childhood :(.

 

I wasn't expecting it to be brilliant, but I was surprised at just how bad it was :lol:

 

I'm almost tempted to try another one, perhaps by a different ghost writer, just to confirm that wasn't just an unlucky strike. But I'll probably only be disappointed again.

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On 8.2.2018 at 2:18 PM, ~Andrea~ said:

When I was going through my old threads to add the totals to each year, I noticed that at some point the emoticons have changed. So for example what was initially (I assume), a :) now shows as a :irked: and what must have been originally a scared one like :lurker: now shows as :rolleyes:

It makes some of those conversations look unintentionally sarcastic or aggressive!! It did make me smile.

 

That's hilarious :D  It would make for a really odd reading of older threads!! 

 

I'm glad you like The Lovely Bones! Like you, I liked the unusual narrative and focus. As for the Nancy Drew book... :D  I read a bunch of them when I was a kid, too. I reread a few favorites in my early twenties and it was semi painful :D   But they make a great nostalgia trip. I would assume that the Enid Blyton books fair better in this respect: they ought to be still more enjoyable, at an older age, than the Nancy Drews. 

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I used to love Nancy Drew, not sure what I'd think of them now though!  Apparently a lot of writers wrote them using the name Carolyn Keene, so maybe some writers are better than others?  Two of my favourites were The Haunted Showboat and  The Mystery of the Dancing Puppet.

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20 hours ago, frankie said:

 

As for the Nancy Drew book... :D  I read a bunch of them when I was a kid, too. I reread a few favorites in my early twenties and it was semi painful :D 

 

Yep, that sounds about right :D

 

Quote

I would assume that the Enid Blyton books fair better in this respect: they ought to be still more enjoyable, at an older age, than the Nancy Drews. 

 

Well I have some more nostalgia reads planned, so who knows, maybe I'll throw in some Enid Blyton too!

 

16 hours ago, Madeleine said:

I used to love Nancy Drew, not sure what I'd think of them now though!  Apparently a lot of writers wrote them using the name Carolyn Keene, so maybe some writers are better than others?  Two of my favourites were The Haunted Showboat and  The Mystery of the Dancing Puppet.

 

Well that's what I wondered, so I'm slightly curious to try another writer, maybe the original writer, Midlred Wirt Benson. However I think I'll leave it a while. I'm not sure I can face another one too soon :lol:

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21 hours ago, frankie said:

I would assume that the Enid Blyton books fair better in this respect: they ought to be still more enjoyable, at an older age, than the Nancy Drews. 

 

I read a couple of Enid Blyton's books as as adult - having never read them when I was a child, and I liked them (though, I like a lot of books, so maybe that doesn't say a whole lot!).

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