poppyshake

Books bought/acquired in 2015 Progress: 61/70 Fiction: Akunin, Boris - The Winter Queen (from Claire) Austen, Jane - The Beautifull Cassandra (on loan from Claire) Bivald, Katarina - The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend Black, Holly - Doll Bones (from lovely Claire) Blyton, Enid - First Term at Malory Towers Blyton, Enid - Second Form at Malory Towers Blyton, Enid - Third Year at Malory Towers Blyton, Enid - Upper Fourth at Malory Towers Blyton, Enid - In the Fifth at Malory Towers Blyton, Enid - Last Term at Malory Towers Blyton, Enid - The Twins at St Clare's Blyton, Enid - The O'Sullivan Twins Blyton, Enid - Summer Term at St Clare's Blyton, Enid - Second Form at St Clare's Blyton, Enid - Claudine at St Clare's Blyton, Enid - Fifth Formers at St Clare's Bonfiglioli, Kyril - After You With the Pistol Bonfiglioli, Kyril - Don't Point That Thing At Me (from lovely Claire) Bonfiglioli, Kyril - Something Nasty in the Woodshed Bradley, Alan - I am Half-Sick of Shadows (from lovely Claire) Calvino, Italo - If On a Winter's Night a Traveller Carhart, T.E. - The Piano Shop on the Left Bank Carr, J.L. - A Month in the Country Chevallier, Gabriel - Clochemerle Comyns, Barbara - The Vet's Daughter Connolly, Cressida - My Former Heart Crowe, Sara - Campari for Breakfast Ewing, Barbara - The Mesmerist Faulks, Sebastian - Jeeves and the Wedding Bells Haig, Matt - The Humans (from lovely Claire .. Alan's book but I'm not going to let that stop me ) Hall, Louisa - The Carriage House Healey, Emma - Elizabeth Is Missing Hwang, Sun-mi - The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly Jefferson Farjeon, J - Mystery In White Lauraine, Antoine - The Red Notebook Lehmann, Rosamond - Invitation to the Waltz (from lovely Janet) Lehmann, Rosamond - The Weather in the Streets Mendelson, Charlotte - Almost English Millar, Martin - The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies (on loan from Claire) Mitchell, David - Slade House Moore Fitzgerald, Sarah - The Apple Tart of Hope (on loan from Claire) O'Flynn, Catherine - The News Where You Are Packer, Nigel - The Restoration of Otto Laird Puertolas, Romain - The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped In An Ikea Wardrobe Rattle, Alison - The Quietness (on loan from Claire) Ribchester, Lucy - The Hourglass Factory Roberts, Michele - Fair Exchange Sanmartin Fenollera, Natalia - The Awakening of Miss Prim Sansom, Ian - The Norfolk Mystery (from lovely Claire) Sijie, Dai - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath (from lovely Kylie) Stevens, Robin - Arsenic for Tea (on loan from Claire) Stevens, Robin - First Class Murder (on loan from Claire) Stevens, Robin - Murder Most Unladylike (on loan from Claire) Stibbe, Nina - Man at the Helm Takashi, Hiraide - The Guest Cat (from lovely Claire) Tropper, Jonathan - One Last Thing Before I Go (on loan from Claire) Tropper, Jonathan - This Is Where I Leave You (from lovely Frankie) Truss, Lynne - Cat Out Of Hell (on loan from Claire) Wood, Lucy - Diving Belles (on loan from Claire) Wood, Naomi - Mrs Hemingway Woodfine, Katherine - The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow Non Fiction: Albertine, Viv - Clothes, Music, Boys Dunlop, Tessa - To Romania with Love Garfield, Simon (editor) - My Dear Bessie: A Love Story in Letters Mead, Rebecca - The Road to Middlemarch Mitchell, David - Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse Reich, Peter - A Book of Dreams Ross, Abbie - Hippy Dinners Thomson, Graeme - Under the Ivy

Book Club Forum Member's Favourite Non-Fiction Kylie's Favourite Non-Fiction (progress 3/13) Bill Bryson - Down Under Bill Bryson - A Walk in the Woods Bill Bryson - A Short History of Nearly Everything Truman Capote - In Cold Blood AB Facey - A Fortunate Life Tim Flannery - The Explorers Tim Flannery - The Birth of Sydney Anne Frank - The Diary of Anne Frank Helene Hanff - 84 Charing Cross Road Steven D. Levitt - Freaconomics Sylvia Plath - The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath Andrew Solomon - The Noonday Demon Martin Toseland - A Steroid Hit the Earth Frankie's Favourite Non-Fiction (progress 3/28) Sylvia Beach - Shakespeare and Company Constance Briscoe - Ugly Vincent Bugliosi - Helter Skelter Augusten Burroughs - A Wolf at the Table Augusten Burroughs - Dry Augusten Burroughs - Magical Thinking Augusten Burroughs - Possible Side Effects Augusten Burroughs - Running with Scissors Alain de Botton - How Proust Can Change Your Life Peggy Claude-Pierre - The Secret Language of Eating Disorders Pamela Druckerson - French Children Don't Throw Food Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl Philip Gonzalez - The Dog Who Rescues Cats John Grogan - Marley and Me Ronald Hayman - The Death and Life of Sylvia Plath Nick Hornby - The Complete Polysyllabic Spree Lesley McDowell - Between the Sheets - The Literary Liaisons of Nine 20th Century Women Writers Motley Crue - The Dirt Vicki Myron - Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World Christopher V.V. Parnell - Hell's Prisoner Dave Peltzer - A Child Called It Flora Rheta Scheiber - Sybil Mary Roach - Stiff - The Life of the Human Cadavers Ann Rule - The Stranger Beside Me Deborah Spungen - And I Don't Want to Live This Life: A Mother's Story of her Daughter's Murder Danny Wallace - Yes Man Tobias Wolff - This Boys Life Tuula-Liina Varis - Kilpikonna ja olkimarsalkka

Book Club Forum Member's Favourite Fiction Reads Kylie's Favourite Fiction (progress 24/40) Jane Austen - Emma Jane Austen - Pride & Prejudice John Banville - The Body of Evidence Ray Bradbury - Farenheit 451 Charlotte Bronte - Jane Eyre Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange Italo Calvino - If On a Winter's Night a Traveller John Connolly - The Book of Lost Things Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens - Great Expectations Alexandre Dumas - Count of Monte Christo Mark Dunn - Ella Minnow Pea Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex Michel Faber - The Crimson Petal and the White F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby Jonathan Safran Foer - Everything is Illuminated George & Weedon Grossmith - Diary of a Nobody Joseph Heller - Catch 22 Susan Hill - The Woman in Black Jack Kerouac - On the Road Jack Kerouac - The Town and the City Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon Steig Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird Erich Maria Marquez - All Quiet on the Western Front Margaret Mitchell - Gone With the Wind Vladimir Nabakov - Lolita George Orwell - Animal Farm Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged Mary Shelley - Frankenstein John Steinbeck - Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men Bram Stoker - Dracula Hunter.S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray Tim Winton - Cloudstreet Markus Zusak - The Book Thief Frankie's Favourite Fiction (progress 35/103) Boris Akunin - The Winter Queen Ingvar Ambjørnsen - Elling series Jane Austen - Northanger Abbey Jane Austen - Persuasion Iain Banks - Wasp Factory Muriel Barbery - The Elegance of the Hedgehog Linwood Barclay - Too Close to Home Robert Bloch - Psycho John Boyne - Crippen John Boyne - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Poppy Z. Brite - Exquisite Corpse Karin Brunk Holmqvist - Pieni potenssipuoti Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange Chelsea Cain - Heartsick Truman Capote - Breakfast at Tiffany's Michael Chabon - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower Agatha Christie - Ten little Niggers Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Jeffery Deaver - Lincoln Rhyme series Charles Dickens - A Tale of Two Cities Lucy Dillon - The Secret of Happy Ever After Emma Donoghue - Room Daphne du Maurier - My Cousin Rachel Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex Michel Faber - Under the Skin Jasper Fforde - The Eyre Affair Helen Fielding - Bridget Jones's Diary Fannie Flagg - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Peter Franzén - Tumman veden päällä Stephen Fry - The Hippopotamus Alex Garland - The Beach Guy Gavriel Kay - The Lions of Al-Rassan Linda Gillard - Emotional Geology William Goldman - The Marathon Man John Grogan - Marley and Me Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Matt Haig - The Last Family in England Anna-Leena Härkönen - Häräntappoase Daniil Harms - Incidences Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse series Joanne Harris - Gentleman & Players Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises Nick Hornby - Juliet, Naked Siri Hustvedt - The Summer Without Men Kazuo Ishiguro - A Pale View of Hills Lloyd Jones - Mister Pip Katja Kallio - Kuutamolla John Kennedy Toole - A Confederacy of Dunces Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon Stephen King - Cujo Stephen King - Green Mile Stephen King - The Stand Sophie Kinsella - Twenties Girl Andrey Kurkov - Death & the Penguin Tuomas Kyrö - Mielensäpahoittaja Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird Dennis Lehane - Shutter Island Ira Levin - Rosemary's Baby Jeff Lindsay - Dexter Vaino Linna - The Unknown Soldier Jennifer Lynch - The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (and you need to watch the TV show!!) Vladimar Nabokov - Lolita Irene Nemirovsky - The Ball Grace Metalious - Peyton Place David Mitchell - Black Swan Green Margaret Mitchell - Gone with the Wind Sue Monk Kidd - The Secret of Bees L.M. Montgomery - The Blue Castle Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons - Watchmen Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart Sofi Oksanen - Purge Ann Patchett - Bel Canto Inna Patrakova - Naapurit Dan Rhodes - Gold Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire Kauko Röyhkä - Kaksi aurinkoa Antoine de Saint-Exupery - The Little Prince Pirkko Saisio - Punainen erokirja Sapphire - Push! Erich Segal - Love Story Mary Ann Shaffer - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society George Bernard Shaw - Pygmalion Anita Shreve - The Weight of Water Linda Lay Shuler - She Who Remembers Nevil Shute - Pied Piper Dai Sijie - Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Karin Slaughter - Grant County + Will Trent series Robert Louis Stevenson - Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde Garth Stein - The Art of Racing in the Rain John Steinbeck - The Wayward Bus Kathryn Stockett - The Help Bram Stoker - Dracula Patrick Suskind - Perfume Vikas Swarup - Q&A Donna Tartt - The Secret History Jari Tervo - Pyhiesi yhteyteen Voltaire - Candide Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five Sarah Waters - Fingersmith Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest Carlos Ruiz Zafon - The Shadow of the Wind Markus Zusak - The Book Thief

The Modern Library: 200 Best Novels in English since 1950 Progress 25/200 1. A Murder is Announced 2. Nothing - Henry Green 3. Power Without Glory - Frank Hardy 4. The Grand Sophy - Georgette Heyer 5. December Bride - Sam Hanna Bell 6. My Cousin Rachel - Daphne Du Maurier 7. The West Pier - Patrick Hamilton 8. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe - Carson McCullers 9. A Dance to the Music of Time - Anthony Powell 10. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger 11. Invisible Man: A Novel - Ralph Ellison 12. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway 13. The Natural - Bernard Malamud 14. The Financial Expert - R.K. Narayan 15. Wise Blood: A Novel - Flannery O'Connor 16. East of Eden - John Steinbeck 17. The Sword of Honour Trilogy - Evelyn Waugh 18. Private Life of an Indian Prince - Mulk Raj Anand 19. Go Tell it on the Mountain - James Baldwin 20. The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow 21. The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler 22. The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley 23. The Echoing Grove - Rosamond Lehman 24. The Palm-Wine Drunkard - Amos Tutola 25. Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis 26. Lord of the Flies - William Golding 27. The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins 28. The Flint Anchor - Sylvia Townsend Warner 29. Molloy: Malone Dies - Samuel Beckett 30. Recognitions - William Gaddis 31. The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith 32. Lolita - Vladimir Nabakov 33. A Legacy - Sybille Bedford 34. Train to Pakistan - Khushwant Singh 35. Owls Do Cry - Janet Frame 36. On the Road - Jack Kerouac 37. Angel - Elizabeth Taylor 38. The Fountain Overflows - Rebecca West 39. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe 40. Anecdotes of Destiny - Isak Dineson 41. From the Terrace - John O'Hara 42. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning - Alan Sillitoe 43. Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs 44. A Heritage and its History - Ivy Compton-Burnett 45. The Little Disturbances of Man - Grace Paley 46. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 47. Balkan Trilogy - Olivia Manning 48. Rabbit Angstrom: A Tetrology: (Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest) - John Updike 49. Jeeves in the Offing - P.G. Wodehouse 50. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 51. A House for Mr Biswas - V.S. Naipaul 52. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark 53. Riders in the Chariot - Patrick White 54. That's How it Was - Maureen Duffy 55. The Reivers - William Faulkner 56. The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing 57. The Lonely Girl - Edna O'Brien 58. Ship of Fools - Katherine Anne Porter 59. The Little Girls - Elizabeth Bowen 60. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - John le Carre 61. The Group - Mary McCarthy 62. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 63. Herzog - Saul Bellow 64. Heartland - Wilson Harris 65. Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby 66. Memoirs of a Peon - Frank Sargeson 67. Interpreters - Wole Soyinka 68. A Jest of God - Margaret Laurence 69. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys 70. The Jewel in the Crown - Paul Scott 71. Cotters England - Christina Stead 72. The Confessions of Nat Turner - William Styron 73. A Grain of Wheat - Ngugi Wa Thiong'o 74. In the Heart of the Country - William H. Gass 75. The Nice and the Good - Iris Murdoch 76. The Unfortunates - B.S. Johnson 77. Happiness and other Stories - Mary Lavin 78. The Godfather - Mario Puzo 79. Fifth Business - Robertson Davies 80. Master and Commander - Patrick O'Brian 81. The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth 82. St. Urbain's Horseman - Mordecai Richler 83. Black List, section H - Francis Stuart 84. The Optomist's Daughter - Eudora Welty 85. The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell 86. Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon 87. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow 88. Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 89. Changing Places: A Tale of Two Campuses - David Lodge 90. The Lost Salt Gift of Blood - Alistair Macleod 91. Interview with the Vampire - Anne Rice 92. Saville - David Storey 93. Injury Time - Beryl Bainbridge 94. Falconer - John Cheever 95. A Book of Common Prayer - Joan Didion 96. Ice Age - Margaret Drabble 97. Tirra Lirra by the River - Jessica Andersen 98. Plumb - Maurice Gee 99. The Human Factor - Graham Greene 100. Murderer - Roy Heath 101. The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan 102. The Year of the French - Thomas Flanagan 103. From the Fifteenth District - Mavis Gallant 104. Burger's Daughter - Nadine Gordimer 105. Sleepless Nights - Elizabeth Hardwick 106. The Executioner's Song - Norman Mailer 107. A Bend in the River - V.S. Naipaul 108. Earthly Powers - Anthony Burgess 109. The Transit of Venus - Shirley Hazzard 110. Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban 111. Lamb - Bernard MacLaverty 112. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson 113. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 114. Puffball - Fay Weldon 115. Lanark - Alasdair Gray 116. Red Dragon - Thomas Harris 117. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie 118. A Flag for Sunrise - Robert Stone 119. On the Black Hill - Bruce Chatwin 120. Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally 121. The Color Purple - Alice Walker 122. A Boys Own Story - Edmund White 123. Money - Martin Amis 124. Empire of the Sun - J.G. Ballard 125. Flaubert's Parrot - Julian Barnes 126. In Custody - Anita Desai 127. Nation of Fools - Balraj Khanna 128. Machine Dreams - Jayne Anne Phillips 129. Family and Friends - Anita Brookner 130. Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy 131. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurty 132. Black Robe - Brian Moore 133. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson 134. The Sportswriter - Richard Ford 135. An Artist of the Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro 136. A Summons to Memphis - Peter Taylor 137. Dark Adapted Eye - Barbara Vine 138. Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons 139. Double Whammy - Carl Hiaasen 140. Misery - Stephen King 141. Beloved - Toni Morrison 142. In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje 143. Other Garden - Francis Wyndham 144. Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey 145. Where I'm Calling From - Raymond Carver 146. Paris Trout - Pete Dexter 147. Sugar Mother - Elizabeth Jolley 148. Forty-seventeen - Frank Moorhouse 149. Ice Candy Man - Bapsi Sidhwa 150. Breathing Lessons - Anne Tyler 151. The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe 152. The Book of Evidence - John Banville 153. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijuelos 154. The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan 155. Possession - A.S. Byatt 156. Age of Iron - J.M. Coetzee 157. A Home at the End of the World - Michael Cunningham 158. The Snapper - Roddy Doyle 159. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard 160. Amongst Women - John McGahern 161. The Great World - David Malouf 162. Friend of My Youth - Alice Munro 163. Regeneration Trilogy - Pat Barker 164. Wise Children - Angela Carter 165. A Strange and Sublime Address - Amit Chaudhuri 166. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis 167. Redundancy of Courage - Timothy Mo 168. Mating - Norman Rush 169. Downriver - Iain Sinclair 170. A Thousand Acres - Jane Smiley 171. Reading Turgenev - William Trevor 172. Cloudstreet - Tim Winton 173. Death and Nightingales - Eugene McCabe 174. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe 175. The Secret History - Donna Tartt 176. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides 177. River Sutra - Gita Mehta 178. My Idea of Fun - Will Self 179. The Shipping News - Annie Proulx 180. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh 181. What a Carve Up - Jonathan Coe 182. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres 183. The Folding Star - Alan Hollinghurst 184. Original Sin - P.D. James 185. How Late it Was, How Late - James Kelman 186. The Tortilla Curtain - T. Coraghessan Boyle 187. The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald 188. A Fine Balance - Mistry Rohinton 189. Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood 190. Asylum - Patrick McGrath 191. Last Orders - Graham Swift 192. Night in Question - Tobias Wolff 193. Quarantine - Jim Crace 194. Underworld - Don Delillo 195. American Pastoral - Philip Roth 196. Lady from Guatemala - V.S. Pritchett 197. The Magus - John Fowles 198. So Long, See You Tomorrow - William Maxwell 199. Children's Bach - Helen Garner 200. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

Books read from the 1001 Books You Must Read before You Die by Peter Boxall - 2006 Progress so far: 141/1001 987. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe 985. Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe 971. Candide - Voltaire 959. Evelina – Fanny Burney 940. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen 938. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen 937. Mansfield Park - Jane Austen 936. Emma - Jane Austen 933. Persuasion - Jane Austen 932. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen 931. Frankenstein – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 919. The Nose – Nikolay Gogol 916. The Fall of the House of Usher – Edgar Allan Poe 913. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 910. Martin Chuzzlewit – Charles Dickens 909. The Purloined Letter – Edgar Allan Poe 905. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 904. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë 903. Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë 902. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë 900. Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell 898. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 897. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne 896. Moby Dick - Herman Melville 892. Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell 891. Villette – Charlotte Brontë 890. Bleak House - Charles Dickens 887. North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell 886. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 883. A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens 876. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens 873. Les Misérables – Victor Hugo 871. Notes from the Underground – Fyodor Dostoevsky 869. Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens 868. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll 867. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky 865. The Last Chronicle of Barset – Anthony Trollope 863. Little Woman - Louisa May Alcott 859. Phineas Finn – Anthony Trollope 854. Alice Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Caroll 853. Middlemarch - George Eliot 846. Far from the Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy 840. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy 825. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain 821. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy 820. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson 808. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy 805. News from Nowhere – William Morris 804. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 803. Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith 794. Dracula - Bram Stoker 790. The War of the Worlds – H.G. Wells 789. The Turn of the Screw – Henry James 776. The Ambassadors – Henry James 740. The Voyage Out - Virginia Woolf 699. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald 698. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf 695. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie 686. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf 680. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh 675. Orlando - Virginia Woolf 671. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner 656. Cakes and Ale – W. Somerset Maugham 650. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 643. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas – Gertrude Stein 619. Gone With the Wind – Margaret Mitchell 611. The Years - Virginia Woolf 610. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien 608. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 603. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier 601. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson 596. Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood 584. Between the Acts – Virginia Woolf 566. The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford 564. Animal Farm - George Orwell 563. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh 561. Titus Groan – Mervyn Peake 547. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell 542. Love in a Cold Climate - Nancy Mitford 529. The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger 526. Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham 521. The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway 495. The Talented Mr. Ripley – Patricia Highsmith 494. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tokien 484. On the Road – Jack Kerouac 481. The Midwich Cuckoos – John Wyndham 478. The Bell – Iris Murdoch 474. Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris – Paul Gallico 467. Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Truman Capote 465. Memento Mori – Muriel Spark 459. Cider With Rosie – Laurie Lee 457. Rabbit, Run – John Updike 456. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 451. Catch-22 – Joseph Heller 450. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark 446. A Severed Head – Iris Murdoch 445. Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger 433. The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath 431. The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark 399. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez 367. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou 365. The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison 354. Surfacing – Margaret Atwood 352. The Summer Book – Tove Jansson 305. The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch 300. If On a Winter's Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino 278. On the Black Hill – Bruce Chatwin review 275. Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally 274. A Pale View of Hills – Kazuo Ishiguro 272. The Color Purple – Alice Walker 260. Money: A Suicide Note – Martin Amis 237. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit – Jeanette Winterson 236. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel García Márquez 222. Beloved - Toni Morrison 196. A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving 172. Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord – Louis de Bernieres 147. The Secret History – Donna Tartt 143. The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides 133. The Shipping News – E. Annie Proulx 129. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis de Bernieres 120. Mr Vertigo - Paul Auster 112. The Information – Martin Amis 92. The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy 90. Veronika Decides to Die – Paulo Coelho 89. The Hours - Michael Cunningham 86. The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver 69. Pastoralia – George Saunders 54. White Teeth – Zadie Smith 52. The Devil and Miss Prym – Paulo Coelho 49. Life of Pi - Yann Martel 38. Gabriel's Gift - Hanif Kureishi 33. Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides 28. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami 26. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer 19. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon 15. The Colour – Rose Tremain 13. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell 9. The Master – Colm Tóibín 6. The Sea – John Banville 3. On Beauty – Zadie Smith 1. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

The Shameful Reckoning of My Books TBR Progress 32/232 Link to Books Acquired 2015 Fiction: Aaronovitch, Ben - Broken Homes Aaronovitch, Ben - Whispers Underground Abercrombie, Joe - The Heroes Abercrombie, Joe - Red Country Alison, Rosie - The Very Thought of You Almond, David - The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean Amis, Kingsley - The Old Devils Anderson, James - The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy Atkinson, Kate - Started Early Took My Dog Atwood, Margaret - The Blind Assassin Barker, Pat - The Ghost Road Barker, Pat - Regeneration Barker, Pat - Toby's Room Beauman, Ned - The Teleportation Accident Benson, E.F. - Lucia Rising Binchy, Maeve - Whitethorn Woods Bloom, Amy - Away Boyd, William - Any Human Heart Bradley, Alan - A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce 3) Bradley, Alan - I Am Half Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce 4) Bradley, James - The Resurrectionist Bulgakov, Mikhail - The Master and Margarita Bullington, Jesse - The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart Burnett, Frances Hodgson - A Little Princess Burnett, Frances Hodgson - The Secret Garden Burton, Jessie - The Miniaturist Byatt, AS - Possession Carey, Peter - Oscar and Lucinda Carter, Angela - Nights at the Circus Carter, Angela - The Passion of New Eve Chang, Jung - Wild Swans Christie, Agatha - Appointment with Death Christie, Agatha - At Bertram's Hotel Christie, Agatha - Curtain: Poirot's Last Case Christie, Agatha - Death on the Nile Christie, Agatha - Dumb Witness Christie, Agatha - Five Little Pigs Christie, Agatha - Hercule Poirot's Christmas Christie, Agatha - Lord Edgware Dies Christie, Agatha - The Murder at the Vicarage Christie, Agatha - Murder on the Orient Express Christie, Agatha - The Mysterious Affair at Styles Christie, Agatha - One, Two, Buckle My Shoe Christie, Agatha - Peril at End House Christie, Agatha - Third Girl Clements, Abby - Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop Coe, Jonathan - The Rotters Club Collis, John Stewart - The Worm Forgives the Plough Connolly, John - Nocturnes Craig, Amanda - Hearts and Minds Cunningham, Michael - The Hours Dahl, Roald - The BFG Dahl, Roald - Charlie & the Glass Elevator Dahl, Roald - The Witches Dennys, Joyce - Henrietta Sees it Through (Bloomsbury) Dickens, Charles - Dickens at Christmas Drabble, Margaret - The Red Queen Dumas, Alexandre - Robin Hood Du Maurier, Daphne - The House on the Strand Du Maurier, Daphne - Jamaica Inn Eco, Umberto - The Name of the Rose Eggers, Dave - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Englander, Nathan - The Ministry of Special Cases Eugenides, Jeffrey - My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead Fallada, Hans - Alone in Berlin Faulks, Sebastian - Birdsong Fforde, Jasper - The Big Over Easy Fforde, Jasper - The Fourth Bear Fforde, Jasper - The Woman Who Died a Lot Fitzgerald, F.Scott - The Beautiful and the Damned Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Tender is the Night Fox, Essie - The Somnambulist Flynn, Gillian - Gone Girl French, Dawn - A Tiny Bit Marvellous French, Vivien - The Robe of Skulls Freud, Esther - The Sea House Funke, Cornelia - Reckless Gardner, Sally - The Red Necklace Gibbons, Stella - Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm Gogol, Nikolai - The Collected Tales Gold, Glen David - Carter Beats the Devil Goss, Theodora - The Thorn and The Blossom Grassic Gibbon, Lewis - Sunset Song Green, Roger Lancelyn - King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Greene, Graham - Brighton Rock Haddon, Mark - The Red House Haig, Matt - The Last Family in England Harkaway, Nick - Angelmaker Hay, Sheridan - The Secret of Lost Things Hill, Susan - Printer's Devil Court Hill, Susan - The Man in the Picture Hines, Barry - A Kestrel For a Knave Hoare, Philip - Leviathan Hornby, Nick - About a Boy Hornby, Nick - A Long Way Down Hornby, Nick - Juliet Naked Hornby, Nick - Slam Hugo, Victor - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame Hustvedt, Siri - What I Loved Irving, John - The Cider House Rules Irving, John - The World According to Garp Jacobson, Howard - The Finkler Question Jonasson, Jonas - The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden Jones, Sadie - The Outcast Juster, Norton - The Phantom Tollbooth Kingsolver, Barbara - The Lacuna Kipling, Rudyard - The Jungle Book Lakhous, Amara - Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio Lawrence, DH - Women in Love Le Carre, John - The Spy who Came in from the Cold Lessing, Doris - The Golden Notebook Lindgren, Astrid - Emil and the Great Escape Lindgren, Astrid - Emil and the Sneaky Rat Lindgren, Astrid - Emil's Clever Pig Lindgren, Astrid - Karlson Flies Again Lindgren, Astrid - Karlson on the Roof Lindgren, Astrid - Lotta Makes a Mess Lindgren, Astrid - Lotta Says No Lindgren, Astrid - Pippi Goes Abroad Lindgren, Astrid - Pippi in the South Seas Mantel, Hilary - Fludd Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - The Autumn of the Patriarch Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - Chronicle of a Death Foretold Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - Leaf Storm Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - No One Writes to the Colonel Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - Of Love and Other Demons Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor Maugham, Somerset - Ashenden Maugham, Somerset - Christmas Holiday Maugham, Somerset - Don Fernando Maugham, Somerset - Liza of Lambeth Maugham, Somerset - The Magician Maugham, Somerset - The Narrow Corner Maugham, Somerset - The Painted Veil Maugham, Somerset - Up at the Villa McGregor, Jon - If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things McPherson, Catriona - Dandy Gilver & the Proper Treatment of Blood Stains Mistry, Rohinton - A Fine Balance Mitford, Nancy - Don't Tell Alfred Moers, Walter - The 131⁄2 Lives of Captain Bluebear Montgomery, LM - Anne of Green Gables Moon, Josephine - The Tea Chest Morrall, Clare - Natural Flights of the Human Mind Morton, Kate - The House at Riverton Murdoch, Iris - The Black Prince Murdoch, Iris - The Flight from the Enchanter Murdoch, Iris - The Unofficial Rose Nesbit, E - The Railway Children North, Claire - The First Fiifteen Lives of Harry August Oksanen, Sofi - Purge O'Neill, Joseph - Netherland Orwell, George - Keep the Aspidistra Flying Pratchett, Terry and Baxter, Stephen - The Long Earth Preston, Caroline - Gatsby's Girl Radcliffe, Ann - The Mysteries of Udolpho Ransome, Arthur - Winter Holiday Rhodes, Dan - This is Life Rodriguez, Deborah - The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul Rymer, James Malcolm - Sweeney Todd Schlink, Bernard - The Reader Sewell, Anna - Black Beauty Smith, Ali - The Accidental Spark, Muriel - Robinson Spark, Muriel - The Comforters Steinbeck, John - Cannery Row Steinbeck, John - East of Eden Steinbeck, John - The Pearl Steinbeck, John - The Red Pony Stevenson, DE - Mrs Tim of the Regiment Stevenson, Robert Louis - Treasure Island Tartt, Donna - The Little Friend Taylor, G.P. - Mariah Mundi & the Ghost Diamonds Toksvig, Sandi - Valentine Grey Townsend, Sue - Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years Townsend, Sue - Adrian Mole & the Weapons of Mass Destruction Udall, Brady - The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint Vickers, Sally - Miss Garnet's Angel Walter, Jess - Beautiful Ruins Waters, Sarah - Fingersmith Waters, Sarah - The Night Watch Welsh, Irvine - Trainspotting Whipple, Dorothy - Someone at a Distance (Persephone) Wilde, Oscar - The Importance of being Earnest Williams, Nigel - East of Wimbledon Williams, Nigel - They Came From SW19 Winterson, Jeanette - Sexing the Cherry Winterson, Jeanette - The Daylight Gate Winton, Tim - Cloudstreet Wodehouse, PG - Right Ho, Jeeves Non Fiction: Betjeman, John - Trains and Buttered Toast Bryson, Bill - Down Under Child, Julia - My Life in France Claridge L - Tamara De Lempicka: A Life of Deco and Decadence Crystal, Ben - Shakespeare on Toast Defoe, Daniel - A Journal of the Plague Year De Waal, Edmund - The Hare with Amber Eyes Faulks, Sebastian - Faulks on Fiction Fitzgerald, Penelope - So I Have Thought of You: The Letters of Penelope Fitzgerald Grove, Valerie - Laurie Lee: The Well Loved Stranger Hodgson, Vere - Few Eggs and No Oranges (Persephone) Holroyd, Michael - A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Helen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families Keats, John - Bright Star: The Complete Poems and Selected Letters Last, Nella - Nella Last's Peace Manguel, Alberto - A Reading Diary Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - Living to Tell the Tale McCourt, Frank - Angela's Ashes McCourt, Frank - Tis McGrath, Alistair E - CS Lewis: A Life Milligan, Spike - Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall Milligan, Spike - It Ends with Magic Milligan, Spike - 'Rommel?' 'Gunner Who?' Mosley, Diana - The Pursuit of Laughter Murdoch, Iris - A Writer at War: the Letters and Diaries of Iris Murdoch 1939-1945 Nicholson, Virginia - Among the Bohemians Ozma, Alice - The Reading Promise Pasternak, Boris - Letters to Georgian Friends Phillips, John - Violet to Vita: The Letters Powell, Julie - Julie & Julia Proulx, Annie - Bird Cloud Ronson, Jon - The Psychopath Test Rugg, Julie & Murphy, Lynda - A Book Addicts Treasury Sitwell, Edith - Selected Letters Strachey, Lytton - Eminent Victorians Van Gogh, Vincent - The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh Webster, Jason - Andalus (on loan from Claire) White, Florence - Good Things in England (Persephone) Woolf, Virginia - The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol 1 Woolf, Virginia - The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol 2 Woolf, Virginia - The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol 3 Woolf, Virginia - The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol 4 Woolf, Virginia - The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol 5 Woolf, Virginia - The Letters of Virginia Woolf Vol 6

Books Read 2009 Books Read 2010 Books Read 2011 Books Read 2012 Books Read 2013 Books Read 2014 Total Books Read 2009 ... 49 - incomplete list (39 fiction, 9 non-fiction & 1 audio } male authors: 24 .. female authors: 25) Total books read in 2010 ... 141 (94 fiction, 9 non-fiction, 4 short stories, 2 plays & 32 audio } male authors: 75 .. female authors: 66) Total books read in 2011 ... 109 (71 fiction, 26 non-fiction, 1 short story & 11 audio } male authors: 54 .. female authors: 55) Total books read in 2012 ... 89 (50 fiction, 27 non-fiction, 3 short stories, 1 poem & 8 audio } male authors: 48 .. female authors: 41) Total books read in 2013 ... 109 (67 fiction, 21 non-fiction, 5 short stories, 1 poem, 1 essay, 1 collection & 13 audio } male authors: 57 .. female authors: 51 plus all those in the short story collection) Total Books Read 2014 ... 73 (47 fiction, 15 non-fiction, 6 short stories & 5 audio } male authors: 36, female authors: 37) The very best of luck to you all with your reading in 2015!! I think it's fair to say that I had a fairly dismal reading year in 2014. Mostly because I was living some life and that HAS to be a good thing but then proper life can't be lived without books so it was very bitter sweet. I'm not going to put pressure on myself to read more this year but I hope I can improve on last year's total. At least I've got a reasonable target Like a lot of other members I'm going to do things a bit differently .. no scoring for a start .. that has only ever given me knots in my head and made me disagree with myself. I will try to do reviews but be more casual about it, basically it was just waffle anyway but waffle that took me so long to think/write about that surely I could've added to my totals read? I will probably still waffle from time to time and I most certainly will write lists .. just for the pleasure of crossing things off them really but I'm hoping to be more focused (ha ha!) Hoping for a healthy year for us all Love, light and peace as dear Spike would say xx Quicklinks Mount TBR (look away now ) 1001 Challenge Modern Library Wishlist Conquering Mount Virginia Book Club Forum Member's Favourite Fiction Book Club Forum Member's Favourite Non-Fiction Poached Quotes on Toast Poppyshake's 133 Books You Must Read Before Your Toes Curl Up The English Counties Challenge I'm not going to score but for the sake of adding some colour .. Loved it! Liked it! Not my cup of tea! (possibly these won't even get listed as I'm determined to start abandoning books I don't get on with .. life is too short to read unspeakably bad or even humdrum books .. but then what if they get better?? .. I've often ended up liking a book I started off hating .. oh dear! .. my resolve is weakening ) JANUARY 2015 1. The Franchise Affair - Josephine Tey 2. The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley review 3. We Need To Talk About Kevin Bridges - Kevin Bridges (audio) review 4. Mystery in White - J. Jefferson Farjeon review 5. Man at the Helm - Nina Stibbe review 6. The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly - Sun-Mi Hwang review 7. Invitation to the Waltz - Rosamond Lehmann review 8. The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters (audio) review 9. Iris Murdoch: A Writer at War: Letters and Diaries 1939-45 - Edited by Peter J. Conradi review 10. Printer's Devil Court - Susan Hill review 11. Queen Lucia - E.F. Benson review 12. Miss Mapp - E.F. Benson review 13. Lucia in London - E.F. Benson review .. (in one volume .. but there's no way I'm listing a 700 page omnibus as one book ) 14. A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Their Remarkable Families - Michael Holroyd review 15. First Term at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton review 16. Second Form at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton review 17. The Guest Cat - Takashi Hiraide (short story) review 18. Violet to Vita: The Letters of Violet Trefusis to Vita Sackville West - edited by Mitchell A. Leaska review 19. The Third Year at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton review 20. Peril at End House - Agatha Christie review FEBRUARY 2015 21. The Hours - Michael Cunningham review 22. Love, Nina - Nina Stibbe (audio) review 23. The Mangle Street Murders - M.R.C. Kasasian (audio) review 24. The Awakening Of Miss Prim - Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera review 25. The Rotters' Club - Jonathan Coe review 26. Upper Fourth at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton review 27. Don't Point That Thing At Me - Kyril Bonfiglioli review 28. Fair Exchange by Michele Roberts review 29. The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin review 30. In the Fifth at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton review 31. The 13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers review 32. The Psychopath Test - Jon Ronson review 33. The Curse of the House of Foskett - M.R.C. Kasasian (audio) review 34. Diving Belles - Lucy Wood review 35. Last Term at Malory Towers - Enid Blyton review 36. Cat Out Of Hell - Lynne Truss review 37. Gatsby's Girl - Caroline Preston review MARCH 2015 38. The Girl On the Train - Paula Hawkins (audio) review 39. Murder Most Unladylike - Robin Stevens review 40. Murder On The Orient Express - Agatha Christie review 41. The Apple Tart of Hope - Sarah Moore Fitzgerald review 42. The Twins at St Clare's - Enid Blyton 43. The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place 2: The Hidden Gallery - Maryrose Wood (audio) review 44. The Hourglass Factory - Lucy Ribchester review 45. If On a Winter's Night a Traveller - Italo Calvino review 46. Dandy Gilver & the Proper Treatment of Bloodstains - Catriona McPherson review 47. The Red Notebook - Antoine Laurain review 48. The O'Sullivan Twins - Enid Blyton review 49. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie review 50. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie review 51. East of Eden - John Steinbeck review 52. Summer Term at St Clare's - Enid Blyton review APRIL 2015 53. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn (audio) review 54. Campari for Breakfast - Sara Crowe review 55. The Accidental - Ali Smith 56. A Month In The Country - J.L. Carr 57. My Dear Bessie: A Love Story in Letters - Edited by Simon Garfield review 58. Second Form at St Clare's - Enid Blyton review 59. Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey review 60. Doll Bones - Holly Black review 61. Hitler: My Part In His Downfall - Spike Milligan review MAY 2015 62. Whispers Underground - Ben Aaronivitch 63. Mrs Hemingway - Naomi Wood review 64. Clothes, Music, Boys - Viv Albertine review 65. Almost English - Charlotte Mendelson review 66. Claudine at St Clare's - Enid Blyton review 67. Hippy Dinners - Abbie Ross 68. Eminent Victorians - Lytton Strachey review 69. After You With the Pistol - Kyril Bonfiglioli review JUNE 2015 70. Life After Life - Kate Atkinson (audio) 71. The Weather on the Streets - Rosamund Lehmann 72. Shakespeare on Toast - Ben Crystal 73. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank - T.E. Carhart review 74. This is Where I Leave You - Jonathan Tropper 75. The Quietness - Alison Rattle 76. Fifth Formers at St Clare's - Enid Blyton review 77. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke (audio re-listen) 78. The Restoration of Otto Laird - Nigel Packer 79. The Beautifull Cassandra - Jane Austen 80. The Mesmerist - Barbara Ewing JULY 2015 81. The Goddess of Buttercups and Daisies - Martin Millar 82. Death Descends on Saturn Villa - M.R.C. Kasasian (audio) 83. Arsenic For Tea - Robin Stevens review 84. The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow - Katherine Woodfine 85. To Romania with Love - Tessa Dunlop 86. Mrs Tim of the Regiment - D.E. Stevenson 87. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir who got trapped in an IKEA wardrobe - Romain Puertolas AUGUST 2015 88. The Tea Chest - Josephine Moon review 89. Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada SEPTEMBER 2015 90. Little Beach Street Bakery - Jenny Colgan (audio) review 91. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster 92. Vivien's Heavenly Ice Cream Shop - Abby Clements review 93. First Class Murder - Robin Stevens review 94. Broken Homes - Ben Aaronovitch 95. Regeneration - Pat Barker 96. The Humans - Matt Haig review OCTOBER 2015 97. A Book of Dreams - Peter Reich review 98. The Norfolk Mystery - Ian Sansom review 99. Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller review 100. The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns review 101. The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin 102. The Man in the Picture - Susan Hill 103. Jeeves and the Wedding Bells - Sebastian Faulks review 104. The Robe of Skulls - Vivian French review NOVEMBER 2015 105. Disclaimer - Renee Knight (audio) 106. Appointment with Death - Agatha Christie 107. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend - Katarina Bivald review 108. The Somnambulist - Essie Fox review 109. Slade House - David Mitchell review 110. With the Sound of the Sea - Charlotte Fairbairn review 111. The Road to Middlemarch - Rebecca Mead review DECEMBER 2015 112. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (re-listen) 113. A Boy Called Christmas - Matt Haig

You've missed nothing. Catch it on DVD at some point .. at least then you're free to pause/stop it. I expect we'll get it on DVD as if we don't it'll be the only one we don't have. So annoying but then my head might explode if I don't complete the series

Happy Reading Steve! Think I'll join you in not being a slave to reviews and scores and finishing books etc. I probably will still write lists though .. the world might end if I didn't Hope this is a good .. and more importantly enjoyable .. reading year for you

I have only the vaguest recollection of reading Perfect now Oh dear! Not sure if I wrote a review *toddles off looking* .. no .. I didn't by the looks of it (was a long shot .. I think I only wrote about three reviews last year ) I seem to remember not being that taken but intrigued .. and it came together more at the end. Hope you at least like it Claire ... I don't want to keep foisting terrible books on you

Christmas dinner pie!

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies .. and I HATED it!!!! They've got worse and worse and it's culminated in this!! Story unrecognisable (not surprising really because the actual story was all but dealt with in the last film) so plenty of scope for PJ to write his own story/plot/dialogue etc etc .. all of it awful. The stuff involving Legolas was just unspeakably bad and where was the hobbit?? The Tolkien family must be livid. Sad, sad, sad, that a great franchise like this should come to such a pitiable end. The LOTR films were .. for the most part .. brilliant (though the last of those was the worst .. imo) but these have gone from good to dire. The last time I felt this bored in a cinema was when seeing King Kong .... hmmm ... a pattern is emerging Total indulgence on Peter Jackson's part .. this story could have been brilliantly told if not stretched over three films. I'm trying not to think that the decision to stretch it that far was a financial one .. trying but failing! Rant over .. for now

Your reading list figures are so impressive Claire .. you are a reading machine! Happy Reading in 2015! xx

Happy Reading in 2015 Kylie! xx

Happy Reading in 2015 my darling You did excellently well last year .. well done

Happy Reading in 2015 lovely Janet! xx

Watched Saving Mr Banks which was so enjoyable ... even though I know it's total hogwash .. or the ending is anyway. Also saw Paddington on Christmas Eve ... loved it

Ooh .. I very nearly bought you Heap House Glad I didn't now (though Santa did leave some things with me for you Claire .. he meant me to pass them on to you before now but I haven't been a very good elf .. probably go on the naughty list now ) Love your books Claire .. impressive haul! I've long had my eye on The London Eye Mystery and The Tent, the Bucket and Me .. also Heap House looks phenomenal, I can tell from the cover it's going to be great They'll keep you occupied for a while xx

More Fool Me by Stephen Fry Synopsis: Stephen Fry invites readers to take a glimpse at his life story in the unputdownable More Fool Me. 'Oh dear I am an arse. I expect there'll be what I believe is called an "intervention" soon. I keep picturing it. All my friends bearing down on me and me denying everything until my pockets are emptied. Oh the shame.' In his early thirties, Stephen Fry - writer, comedian, star of stage and screen - had, as they say, 'made it'. Much loved in A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Blackadder and Jeeves and Wooster, author of a critically acclaimed and bestselling first novel, The Liar, with a glamorous and glittering cast of friends, he had more work than was perhaps good for him. What could possibly go wrong? Then, as the 80s drew to a close, he discovered a most enjoyable way to burn the candle at both ends, and took to excess like a duck to breadcrumbs. Writing and recording by day, and haunting a never ending series of celebrity parties, drinking dens, and poker games by night, in a ludicrous and impressive act of bravado, he fooled all those except the very closest to him, some of whom were most enjoyably engaged in the same dance. He was - to all intents and purposes - a high functioning addict. Blazing brightly and partying wildly as the 80s turned to the 90s, AIDS became an epidemic and politics turned really nasty, he was so busy, so distracted by the high life, that he could hardly see the inevitable, headlong tumble that must surely follow...Containing raw, electric extracts from his diaries of the time, More Fool Me is a brilliant, eloquent account by a man driven to create and to entertain - revealing a side to him he has long kept hidden. Review: The reviews for this have been mixed and I did debate whether to read it or not but having enjoyed his previous two memoirs (and Stephen does make the point that he is going on here somewhat .. there are very satisfactory one volume accounts of the lives of Napoleon and Jesus Christ etc .. and even Katie Price .. why the need for three volumes!!??) I thought I should carry on. At the end of The Fry Chronicles he leaves us rather abruptly .. as he prepares to take his first line of cocaine .. so it's impossible not to want to know what happens next. What happens is of course he becomes addicted, spending hideous amounts of time and money on the stimulant and generally letting himself and everyone who loves him down (though not by being in any way disreputable .. somehow .. though he finds it difficult to break the habit .. it doesn't interfere at all in his working life .. he never for instance takes the drug whilst working or in the daytime at all.) He is, however, far from alone .. nearly everyone else he comes into contact with is playing the same game. At the start of the book there is a lot of going over old ground ... for the sake of those that haven't read Moab is My Washpot and/or The Fry Chronicles. This has annoyed readers but it didn't me .. he manages to re-tell his back story in a fresh way with new anecdotes so you get a slightly different perspective on the same set of events. Also .. the latter half of the book is taken directly from his diary entries at the time .. which some people think a con but which I enjoyed. No-one tells a tale or writes a diary quite like Stephen Fry. There are some great anecdotes here involving John Mills, Kenneth Branagh, Princess Diana, Damien Hirst, Keith Allen and a particularly fantastic one about Frank Sinatra. Nothing could ever be as stand out as Moab is My Washpot .. it's one of my favourite biographies ever but this was still hugely enjoyable. I listened to him read it .. which of course increased the enjoyment. This only takes him up to the nineties .. so there's a few volumes more before we're done I think .. Stephen does like to talk 4/5

The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie Synopsis: It’s seven in the morning. The Bantrys wake to find the body of a young woman in their library. She is wearing evening dress and heavy make-up, which is now smeared across her cheeks. But who is she? How did she get there? And what is the connection with another dead girl, whose charred remains are later discovered in an abandoned quarry? The respectable Bantrys invite Miss Marple to solve the mystery… before tongues start to wag. Review: Enjoyable stuff. I like reading murder mysteries at this time of year and who better to read than Agatha? The story seemed familiar to me .. possibly I've caught a Sunday teatime adaptation of it at some point but thankfully couldn't remember the denouement .. ahh .. the blessings of a poor memory As is well known I don't like gore or excessive violence so these kinds of mysteries suit me best .. a step up from the five find-outers but still in the same comfy cosy territory. Wouldn't say this was as stand out as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd .. I think I prefer Poirot to Marple .. but a very pleasant read all the same. 3/5

I love the sound of The Mangle Street Murders Steve .. great review Lovely cover as well. I think I may well be tempted into this one .. STOP SPENDING MY MONEY!!

Yes .. and she did all she could to promote them. They were published during Anne and Emily's lifetime but there wasn't much interest (now I've just seen that Wiki says that The Tenant was wildly successful .. and sold out .. but that Charlotte prevented it being re-published .. hmmm .. I need to do more research I think). At the moment (in the biog) Charlotte is editing Wuthering Heights (after Emily's death) for re-publication .. not sure if that is the version we know or not. The biog is written by Elizabeth Gaskell (who knew Charlotte) so it's not written from a contemporary point of view and it could be said to be slightly biased. I know Mrs Gaskell was commissioned by Charlotte's father to write it and it's said that she omitted things that might cause him upset etc. The Bronte Parsonage museum lay great faith in Elizabeth's words but not sure if I'm getting the whole truth. Wiki of course is not the fount of all knowledge either Lord!! .. 400 pages and I still need to read a more thorough account Isn't it .. and considering what confined lives they led .. Emily in particular (she hated being away from home, didn't really socialise with anyone except her sisters and was a woman of few words) it is just amazing that she could have written a book with so much passion in it and with such an outspoken heroine. Anne's books seem like Anne herself .. quieter or less noticed but for all that equally as valuable. They had two elder sisters too who died young, their brother died shortly before Emily and their mother had died long before. Poor Mr Bronte outlived them all and must have been so, so, sad when his last precious child passed away

Yippee!! This is very good news indeed Claire brilliant! I do like Dan Rhodes' other work but this will always be my fave so I think you've read the best one first He can be a bit macabre ... not to say sick and twisted .. but there's always humour. I borrowed some from the library but I'll dig out what I have and put them aside for you .. you'll know within a few pages if they're for you or not. You are officially included in the Gold fan club now .. woohoo!!

I must read this soon. I'm currently reading a biography of Charlotte and am gaining a real insight into the girls and how they lived etc. I have read Agnes Grey but really want to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as most regard it as Anne's masterpiece. The sad thing is .. neither Emily or Anne knew that their books would become so celebrated. Only Charlotte had success in her lifetime. They'd all be amazed though at just how famous their books and their names have become.