Alexi

What an appropriate time for me that this topic has been raised! I have a problematic tooth that after having a root canal on they have now decided just to extract. Finally had that done yesterday and am still regularly gobbling down drugs. I keep mine open - my dentist has a TV on the ceiling and puts films on. He uses ones you've seen loads so are familiar and comforting. Yesterday's was Pirates of the Caribbean

Ooh, interesting P&P comparison. I was basing on what we've read so far, when she didn't spend much time with him - but as you say, perhaps she should have done! Although, one finds out a lot about people's natures when one moves in with them 24/7 of course. My Mum has firmly advised all her children to try living with their OH before agreeing to be mated for life! My parents are the same and good luck to all of you! I was just imparting my own experience, which was if I had married the sort of men I dated in my late teens I might possess a large therapy bill and no doubt divorce papers. We are all different - who is to say Dorothea isn't more like me than you? (Her sex apart obviously!) As for James being the antithesis of what she would marry, I'm not sure that's entirely obvious to the reader by the time she marries Casaubon. We know a lot about Dorothea, but we haven't met her long by the time she decides to marry him, and certainly to me it seemed likely to be a mistake. Who is to say she wouldn't have been better off with James? I guess book 3 may reveal the answer

Hope mojo returns soon J! I must admit that while aim enjoying The Rise and Fall, it's long and dense and I am excited at the prospect of starting something else.

I sort of agree - now she's spending more time with him she's starting to realise they aren't particularly well suited! That said, given past days of yore and old fashioned courtship, would she have ever got the chance to spend so much concentrated time with him without being married? Of course they also got married much younger than is traditional now - I dread to think what sort of man I might have married in my late teens! I was still in my bad boy phase then, now I've got round to finding someone who is much more suited to me and my ideas of the future etc. Also agree with you J on thr faster pace of book 2 which was a welcome change for me. I also wonder where Eliot will take us with Will. Maybe Casaubon can meet an untimely end?!

You've had a couple of great sounding reads there - great reviews. I have Station Eleven on my TBR so maybe time to manipulate the jar and draw it out The Death House sounds fantastic and definitely one for the wishlist.

That's a really interesting project of Howey's - although it's a shame it starts off so badly! Good to see some newer, indie writers getting exposure though. Will be interested to see what you make of the collection as a whole.

Thanks guys Dental hell round 2 today so have reached the halfway point of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and am 100 pages into Shooting Elvis by R M Eversz, which is...interesting.

After some dentist treatment, I'm feeling rather sorry for myself and so have gone to bed with a book. Making good progress with THe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich now about a third of the way through. Finished book 2 of Middlemarch so am reconsidering a light read alongside! The length of these doorstoppers has not been good for my books read to acquired ratio...

Thanks so much VF! Its exciting, although means every conversation with any family member turns to weddings! Interesting about the publishers Claire. I will have to readdress my letter of complaint

The Memory Box does sound... Interesting I might look out for it in the library You are getting so many books! There was a woman on a quiz show here who said she had 3,000 books at home in a personal library and I immediately thought of you!

I'm spinning between The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Middlemarch. I had started a lighter read alongside but have had to put it down. How do you all cope reading more than one thing at once?!

*waves goodbye to emoticons* Thank you! And oh the pressure. I'm always worried in case someone doesn't like it after my recommendation I always check the page number and desperately try to avoid spoiling myself when I look at the last page! Kindle has definitely made things easier that way. Thanks so much Frankie. It still feels a bit weird. Getting married was always something my parents did - although I've been to 6 weddings from people my age in the last 2 years, a lot of my friends are engaged/newly wed! That page number thing with the kindle is quite irritating! Why can't they all put in the page numbers. Grrrrrr. /firstworldproblems Thanks Kylie! Hope you enjoy it. I think it helped me that my expectations were lower though (because of the Man Booker aspect). I've now got three books on the go. I Normally only have one - two at the most - and I just can't cope.

I'm currently in the middle of Book 2. I've got too much on the go and books screaming to be read However, I shall bear your screams in mind, Frankie, wouldn't want you going hoarse now would we

Oh yes, I will add my name to The Dinner. Horrendous piece of work. I'm still not sure why I finished it! Interesting to read your thoughts on The Lord of The Flies Willoyd. I was also subjected to it in school, and it was read to me in entirety by an English teacher with a thoroughly annoying voice that apparently didn't trust us to read even a chapter unsupervised! Ugh. She actually gave me a loathing of English, one of my best subjects, and I gave it up at the age of 16. Maybe I should now go and reread it and see if my opinion might change!

This, this and this! You're having a fantastic 2015 Kay, but please... it's not good for my wish list Although I don't think the Calvino will be making its way there any time soon, but a fantastic review which did make me giggle!

Arg, this!! I acquire a lot of books cheap or free but that doesn't prevent them counting toward the mounting TBR! Looks like you've acquired some crackers there J to be fair. I shall be eagerly looking for your Jamilia review. I also have neglected my World Challenge lately. The Bell Jar is on my wish list and sounds like a fascinating read, even if, as you say, enjoyable can't really be used. The Rosie Project is screaming at me from my TBR. I really must read it soon - although I say this about at least 50 of them...

Grrrr Janet Ha, you've summed up in a line what I tried to do in four paragraphs! I liked it, but the premise promised so much more. Ah well! I *think* you'd really enjoy The White Tiger. Always a tad reluctant to say that...! But yes, really, really good. And on the 1001 list, from which I've now read a paltry 53... But a few years ago it was 12, so I am making decent progress on the 1305.

#16 The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Synopsis: Balram Halwai is the White Tiger - the smartest boy in his village. His family is too poor for him to afford for him to finish school and he has to work in a teashop, breaking coals and wiping tables. But Balram gets his break when a rich man hires him as a chauffeur, and takes him to live in Delhi. The city is a revelation. As he drives his master to shopping malls and call centres, Balram becomes increasingly aware of immense wealth and opportunity all around him, while knowing that he will never be able to gain access to that world. As Balram broods over his situation, he realizes that there is only one way he can become part of this glamorous new India - by murdering his master. Thoughts: On the 1001 list, this novel picked up the 2008 Man Booker Prize, which instantly made me a little wary. I have found in the past that some winners of this are written in language I feel clearly designed to appeal to these worthy award givers which can make them a little hard to digest. However, I saw this at the library and the synopsis convinced me to look past its literary achievements! Wow. How glad I am. This is a fantastic read. The language is actually really simple, it's very easy to read and it fair rips along at a cracking pace. Balram is born in poor, rural India and despite his father's attempts to make him the one boy in the family who is educated, his family situation and the domination of the town's rich at the time ensure that he is plucked out of the school system and sent to work at a typically young age. The caste system depicted here seems designed to maintain the status of the wealthy and keep the poor downtrodden and ignorant. ​Adiga, who was extensively educated, pulls no punches here. This isn't a nice portrayal of India, but it kept me thoroughly gripped from first to last page. We are told early on that Balram isn't exactly a moral character, so that is in the back of the reader's mind as the story progresses from his young beginnings through to his current residence in Bangalore, from where he is telling his story. ​And yet he is a character you want to root for. I wanted him to escape the destiny life had chosen for him, but the niggle was there that to do that he might have to commit terrible acts. It is very, very well done. Adiga spins a wonderful tale of India's poorer castes, the feel in of being trapped with no way to better oneself or one's children against an all powerful wealthy who enjoy air conditioning and "English" liquor while he sends his money home to provide for his extended family who sweep tables to put food on their own table. Highly recommended. 4.5/5 (I loved it)

Thanks so much Noll! People keep asking me if I've set a date. It's been all of a week! #15 The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss Synopsis: I always thought you'd know, somehow, if something terrible was going to happen. I thought you'd sense it, like when the air goes damp and heavy before a storm and you know you'd better hide yourself away somewhere safe until it all blows over. But it turns out it's not like that at all. There's no scary music playing in the background like in films. No warning signs. Not even a lonely magpie. One for sorrow, Mum used to say. Quick, look for another. The world can tip at any moment … a fact that fifteen-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mum dies after giving birth to her baby sister. Told across the year following her mother's death, Pearl's story is full of bittersweet humour and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mum, but also the fact that her sister - The Rat - is a constant reminder of why her mum is no longer around… Thoughts: I picked this up cheap earlier this year and the book box decided it was not one to languish on the shelf for long! It's obviously aimed at the YA market, with 15-year-old Pearl the centre of the novel and our narrator as we experience a year of her life following the death of her mother in childbirth. We also read flashbacks from when her Mum Stella was around, and Pearl also has "ghostly" visitations from her dead Mum throughout the novel, which help build a picture of what life was like before Stella's death. The main problem here is Pearl - she isn't very likeable. The rest of the cast of characters attract infinitely more sympathy, especially her struggling Dad who does so well to hold things together and Pearl's best friend Molly. Pearl is a teenager who has just lost her Mum, so she does demand sympathy, but after a while it became very difficult for this reader to give her any as she appeared to show no redeeming qualities what so-bleeding-ever. Of course, everyone reacts very differently to grief and this was probably a very realistic portrayal. I have (fortunately) never experienced anything like this, but from my own point of view I think it might have been helpful to have Pearl confess her true feelings to SOMEONE which would have made her instantly more likeable even though she shunned the majority of people. What is very well done here is the book refuses to pander to the YA market or become a cliche. Pearl is struggling, and the ghostly visitations do a little suggest she may be struggling with mental illness. Not only that, but the "handsome boy next door" could easily be a plot device for everything to improve for Pearl. In fact, it's nothing like that which adds some credibility to the story and ensures there is no glossing over of issues for a happy chick lit story arc. What we get is a 12 month look at a girl and family desperately trying to get through each day, and in the case of Pearl largely failing! However, it failed to grab me sufficiently, it wasn't unputdownable and I felt more could have been done to make an unlikeable character gain a little more sympathy - which sounds harsh given what's she's suffered but there it is. 3.5/5 (I liked it)

I thought Far From the Madding Crowd was distinctly average The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster Catcher in the Rye (ugh!) Can't think of any more just at this moment!

Aw that's amazing Janet!

The second option I think. He was criticised for it in later years. Apparently homosexual men have peculiar jealousies (!). It's excellent though, I would recommend it. Frankie, it's 1200 pages so a while to go yet! I might read something else alongside.

I'm now 150 pages into The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Very much enjoying the read but for the fact he repeatedly calls homosexuality a perversion and lists it alongside ex-convicts as moral attributes overlooked by Hitler for party figures. I know it was published in 1960 but still - very distressing to read from a figure purporting to hold supreme authority on horrors of Nazism - which did include persecution of homosexuals.

Oh go on then, you've persuaded me! Just reserved it at the library

Brilliant review of The Man in the High Castle Anna. Another onto the wishlist!