vodkafan
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TBR Short Short List
I decided that I could make a good start on the reading year by finishing off all the books I have already started but then left off.
To this I have added a few that I want to to bump up the list that folks are always recommending me.
Started:
Wuthering HeightsAfterglow Of CreationLife In Victorian BritainKurskThe Keys Of EgyptLondon The Biography
Destined To Be Wives The sisters of Beatrice WebbThe Ragged Trousered Philanthropist
The Selfish Gene Richard DawkinsWhat Remains To Be DiscoveredBump Ups:
The VictoriansBritain Through the paintings of the ageWoman On The Edge Of Time
Journey Through A Small PlanetOf Mice And MenOryx And Crake
To Kill A Mockingbird
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The TBR Pile organised!
Victorian authors, obscure works and classics
The Poor Gentleman Hendrick Conscience
Two On A Tower
The Return Of The Native
A Laodician
A Pair Of Blue Eyes
Jude The Obscure
The Woodlanders
Far From The Madding Crowd all above by
The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy
Post Haste RM Ballantyne
Autobiography Of Anthony Trollope
Lady Anna
Miss Mackenzie 4 above by
The Way We Live Now Anthony Trollope
Twelve Years A Slave Solomon Northup
Letters Of Two Brides Balzac
Birds Of Prey
Charlotte's Inheritance
Run To Earth A Novel
The Doctor's Wife
Lady Audley's Secret Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Little Dorrit Charles Dickens
The Mill On The Floss
Madame Bovary
Tess of The d'urbervilles
Lady Susan
Thoughts On The Education Of Daughters
The Last Man
Maria, Or The Wrongs Of Woman
Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman
The Perpetual Curate
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
Equality
Looking Backward 2000-1887
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Picture Of Dorian Grey Oscar Wilde
Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens
The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Washington IrvineLittle Women Louisa May Alcott
Shirley
Bleak House
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde
The Moonstone
The Woman In White
RuthThe Importance Of Being Earnest
Basil
Les MiserablesWuthering Heights
Mrs OliphantConfessions Of An English Opium Eater Thomas De Quincey
Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain
Books set in Victorian times by modern authors
Under A Cloud-Soft Sky
The Singing Winds
Shelter From The Storm
Snow Angels
Sweet Thames Matthew KnealePure - Andrew Miller
The Road To Samarcand Patrick O'Brian
Reference works and 18th-19th century history, social history
London The Biography Peter Ackroyd
The Siege Of Krishnapur J.G. Farrell
The Victorians AN Wilson
The Dictionary Of LondonRaj Lawrence James
The Age of Revolution 1789-1848
The Age Of Capital 1848-1875
The Age Of Empire 1875-1914Slavery A New Global History Jeremy Black
The Warrior Queens Antonia FraserBalti Britain - Ziauddin Sardar
The Victorians Jeremy PaxmanLife In Victorian Britain a social history Michael PatersonAsians In Britain 400 years of History Rozina Visram
Random must reads
Nice To See It To See It Nice Brian Viner
It's A Small Medium And Outsize World John Taylor
Cut Like Wound Anita Nair (signed copy, paperback printed in India!)
Connections
Rules For Virgins
The Life And Loves Of A She Devil
The Passion Of New Eve
The Haunted Hotel
Ten Interesting Things About Human Behaviour
Slave Girl Sarah Forsyth (autobiography)
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman (biography of Paul Erdos)
The White Mists Of Power Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Blitz The Civilian War 1940-45 Jane Waller Michael Vaughn-Rees (war memoir)
I Think I'm OK
Undercover: The True Story Of Britain's Secret Police
King Solomon's Carpet Barbara Vine
A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark
Capital John Lanchester
Good Behaviour Molly Keane
Miss Peregrine's Home For Unusual Children - Ransom Riggs
Oryx and Crake - Margaret AtwoodStephanie Plum series 9-20 - Janet Evanovitch
Forgotten Voices of the Blitz Joshua Levine
One Day David NicholsGeisha Liza Dalby
In The Heart Of The Sea Nathanial Philbrick
Spycatcher Peter WrightThe Midnight Palace Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Ways Of Seeing John Berger
Gunners On Tour Maurice CourtMother Tongue Bill Bryson
Rivers Of London Ben Aaronovitch
The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans
The German Invasion Of Norway Geirr H HaarrAccidents In The Home Tessa Hadley
Devoted Ladies Molly Keane
A Fine Balance Rohinton MistryOf Mice and Men John Steinbeck
Lord Of The Flies William Golding
Rebecca Daphne Du Maurier
Untying The Knot Linda GillardOne of Our Thursdays Is Missing,
Thursday Next First Among Sequels,
Something Rotten,
The Well Of Lost Plots,
Lost In A Good Book,
The Eyre Affair Jasper FfordeLife Of Pi - Yann Martel
The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared - Jonas JonassonAlone In Berlin
The Terror
Round the BendThe Selfish GeneRichard Dawkins
Two Eggs On My Plate Oluf Reed Olsen
Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Nerd Do Well Simon Pegg
Forensic Clues To Murder Brian Marriner
Bad Blood Lorna Sage
The Voyage Out Virginia Woolf
The Book Of The DeadJourney Through A Small PlanetEmanuel LitvenoffThe Other Side Of The Dale Gervaise Phinn
SF
Out Of Time-Five tales of Time Travel
Strange Loops
The Time Travel Megapack
The Martian Way Isaac Asimov
The Green Brain Frank Herbert
The Steampunk megapack (26 stories)
Viridis
Lady Of Devices A Steampunk Adventure
Steampunk EroticaBest New SF 25
Meeting At Infinity John BrunnerFoundation Isaac Asimov
The Naked Sun Isaac Asimov
Of All Possible Worlds William Tenn
The Makeshift Rocket Poul Anderson
Life The Universe and Everything
More Than Super-Human AE VAN Vogt
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Welcome to my 2016 reading blog, which you may notice is very much the same as last year. Like last year, no reading challenges just a mass of books on my TBR to get through. Reviews are found buried in the folowing pages: sorry if that is confusing to anybody, I haven't mastered the link thingy yet.
(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!
Last year my reading was in the doldrums. I plan to do much better this year especially with my reviews!
Books Read In 2016
January
The Victorians A.N. Wilson 5/5 ®
Life In Victorian Britain A social history Michael Paterson 4/5 ®
In The Year Of Jubilee George Gissing (reread) 5/5 (k)
Journey Through A Small Planet Emanuel Litvinoff 4/5
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 4/5 (k)
The Afterglow Of Creation Marcus Chown 2/5
Of Mice And Men John Steinbeck 4/5 (k)
February
Eye Frank Herbert 1/5
The Victorians Britain Through The Paintings of The Age Jeremy Paxman 2/5 ®
Destined To Be Wives The Sisters of Beatrice Webb Barbara Caine 2/5 ®
Wayward Women Female Offending In Victorian England Lucy Williams 3/5 ®
March
The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 5/5
Railway To The Grave (Railway Detective 4) Edward Marston 3/5
Kursk Lloyd Clark 4/5
The Yard Alex Grecian3/52/5 (downgraded)
The Keys Of Egypt Lesley and Roy Adkins 5/5
Capturing Jack The Ripper Neil R A Bell 5/5
April
Useful Toil Edited by Prof John Burnett. 4/5
May
The Maid's Tale Rose Plummer/Tom Quinn (re-read)
Rite Of Passage Alexi Panshin 4/5
Mother Tongue Bill Bryson 4/5
June
The Man Who Was Thursday GK Chesterton 2/5
The Diary Of A Nobody George and Weedon Grossmith 4/5
The Crowded Street Winifrid Holtby 4/5
July
What Remains To Be Discovered John Maddox 4/5
The Zulu War 3/5
The British Army On Campaign 1856-1881 Micheal Barthorp 2/5
The British Army On Campaign 1882- 1902 Micheal Barthorp 2/5
British Infantryman In South Africa 1877-1881 Ian Castle 2/5
August
Made In America Bill Bryson 4/5
The Last Castle Jack Vance 5/5
Seahorse In The Sky Edmund Cooper 1/5
Rifleman Victor Gregg 3/5
Chariots Of Fire W J Weatherby 2/5
September
Bedford Square Anne Perry 3/5
House Of Silk Antony Horowitz 4/5
The Long Farewell Don Charlwood 4/5
October
The Passenger Lisa Lutz 5/5The Midnight Palace Carlos Ruiz Zafon 1/5
November
Sweet Thames Matthew Neale 5/5
December -
This is something I completely did not expect from you Michelle! The Neil Gaiman books sound very interesting. I had no idea he had collaborated on graphic novels.
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Now you have got me wondering what Bill Bryson's voice sounds like....
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Ooh, what's this Dickensian thing you speak of?
Hi Kylie
Its a mash up of all the Dickens characters into ONE story
DON'T read the episode list!! Spoilers!! Unless you want to of course
here's a link:
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I watched the first part of And Then There Were None, and I watched an animated film with the kids The Croods during the afternoon. We were playing board games when the Dickensian thing was on but it has been recorded for another time.
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I'm surprised by that James, as I thought the English curriculum had always included novels, plays and poetry. Way back when I was at school, we studied three plays - Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney and our obligatory Shakespeare was The Merchant of Venice. We watched a video of stage performances of the first one, a film adaptation of the second and had a school trip to London to see a Shakespeare production (although not the one we were studying).
I enjoyed studying the plays more than the novels and much more than the poetry, and GBS remains one of my favourite playwrights, and I often dip into a book I have which includes four of his plays. I've also been lucky enough to see a few performances of some of his plays which I probably would never had done if we hadn't studied plays at school, so I for one am more than happy to see them included in the English curriculum of schools.
Looking back, I am surprised too. I did both English and English Literature at O level. After searching my memory banks I recalled that we DID study Romeo and Juliet. But we didn't read the parts aloud in class to each other. We never went on any theatre trips though and I never saw a play performed on stage until years later.
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I think it is a good idea. The positives outweigh the negatives by a long shot. Sadly when I was at school this was not part of the English curriculum and there was no drama department either, a teacher tried to start one in his own time as an after school activity but it didn't last.
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I have gone off this series. I used to like it but I think it has now jumped the shark. Scenarios looking a bit old and tired.
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I just got back from watching Star Wars 7. It was a spur of the moment thing to keep Big Son company. I give it 4 out of 10. I judge this as a kids film but was not as engaging to the emotions as for instance Zathura or Spiderwick Chronicles
Very formulaic and disappointing story wise. The new characters roles are basically the same as the old characters and the plot is recycled
One thing I found interesting and a bit spooky. The young female character is like Keira Knightly but with facial expressions. That was Uncanny Valley.
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Seen Star Wars 7 this morning. I give it 4/10.
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Thanks for the clarification! I saw older threads on other topics elsewhere that had been recently bumped, but just wanted to be sure.
We should perhaps call you Onion Bumpy...OK that was poor I know....
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I do too! I never thought about it before, but I do in fact do this "processing " thing and have always been unconscious about it until now. Thanks for bringing up the subject Athena.
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Having seen the 4 hour DVD first, (and 3 times since) which is a fantastic piece of TV, I was slightly disappointed with the book, as I wrote somewhere else on another thread.
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I would like to see a version that is faithful to the book. Thanks for the heads up raven!
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Hope it's ok to bump this thread, after such a long interval!
Here are a few personal favourites, that have variously inspired, delighted, and amused me:
Maurice by E.M. Forster
Other Voices, Other Rooms by Truman Capote
City of Night by John Rechy
Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett
Queer by William S. Burroughs
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
Sucking Sherbet Lemons / Stripping Penguins Bare / Yanking up the Yoyo -- all by Michael Carson
Death in Venice by Thomas Mann
I like Jeanette Winterson's writing so I will look out for The Passion thanks. Is Maurice set pre WW1 by any chance?
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Far from the madding crowd, last night.
This is the new one with Carey Mulligan yes? How was it?
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Not familiar with that one but maybe someone here will know it.
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Small Son and I were on our own last night so we watched Unleashed with Jet Li and Bob Hoskins. I had not seen it before and I enjoyed it.
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Welcome! 3 books a week is a terrific reading rate.
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I'm also recommending Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.
I have this one on a shelf it seemed intriguing but haven't read it yet. Is it good?
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Watched Gettysburg again last night. Just felt in the mood to watch a man film.
Vodkafan's 2016 Reading Adventure
in Past Book Logs
Posted
Thanks bobblybear. It's been ages since we had a chat. To be honest most of those books in my "random must reads" list have been there for over a year and I have in some cases forgotten what it was that attracted me to them. Alone in Berlin is one of them. Must go and read the blurb again.
Happy New Year!