Little Pixie`s Bookshelf 2013

[Karsa Orlong]

It's your reading log, so you call the shots

 

  That's not what you told me 

 

Sarah, nice to see your TBR pile back over 700 

[frankie]

  That's not what you told me 

 

The same rules don't apply to you. You are a type of your own

[pontalba]

 

Little Pixie wrote:   Have you got your cats` pics online here ?

 

Just posted three of them on the Pets thread.....I'd posted some earlier, but couldn't find them.

[julie]

Pixie

Try to check your apps on your Fire. They have one called Collections for Kindle Fire . It sets up a real bookshelf on your Fire and you can set up as many different collection names as you want. That way your books will be organized and easier to find the one you want ..

 

( Just in case you end up with a huge pile of books on yours like I have on mine )  

[Little Pixie]

I don't know, he must have been a moderator before I joined the forum

 

 

Just as long as you don't get any nasty stalkers who love to peer in and watch you read books on the thing

 

Uh, oooo-kay.

[Little Pixie]

  That's not what you told me 

 

Sarah, nice to see your TBR pile back over 700 

 

No, no, it`s not !!  

 

It might suddenly increase whenever the Kindle`s on, but most of the time, it`ll be under 700.

[Little Pixie]

Pixie

Try to check your apps on your Fire. They have one called Collections for Kindle Fire . It sets up a real bookshelf on your Fire and you can set up as many different collection names as you want. That way your books will be organized and easier to find the one you want ..

 

( Just in case you end up with a huge pile of books on yours like I have on mine )  

 

Ooh, thank you.

[Little Pixie]

Just posted three of them on the Pets thread.....I'd posted some earlier, but couldn't find them.

 

Lovely kitties.

[Little Pixie]

Book # 84  Mr Golightly`s Holiday by Salley Vickers    TBR 698

 

Amazon Synopsis :

ith a sweet tooth and a high tolerance of Anglican whimsy are offered much beguilement in Sally Vickers' new novel Mr Golightly's Holiday. Set in the Devon village of Great Calne, it records the events observed, and in part precipitated, by Mr Golightly, the author of a work once famous but now tending to be overlooked, who has elected to settle himself in this community for a while. Mr Golightly himself, a rumpled, elderly figure arriving in a half-timbered Traveller van, is a familiar enough version of "the male author"; Great Calne, an apparently idyllic village with a wide range of carefully differentiated characters, but underneath seething with unseen discontents and rivalries, is itself another easily summoned trope--the kind of community now perhaps most commonly encountered in fictional terms in TV shows. This is handy, for Mr Golightly decides that the best way of dragging his great work into the limelight of popularity and relevance is to recast it as a soap opera. In the event, he makes little headway with this project because, of course, the affairs of the village become all-absorbing and gradually draw him in. And so things unfold, as the characters carefully established by Sally Vickers work out their destinies in a mixture of social comedy (some of it very sharp), melodrama, nature mysticism and visionary redemption that delivers far more than the opening paragraphs can suggest.

 

There`s a big mystery at the heart of this book, which I realised  by reading the blurb and a bit of guesswork. Knowing what the book was really about didn`t spoil my reading of it, though I did edit the synopsis just in case anyone else spoiled.

 

Sometimes the writing was excellent and sometimes it didn`t quite work, though that could be because it went over my head with literary allusions I hadn`t recognised. There was a point towards the end when I thought I`d missed out a chapter - `something` happens and it isn`t described, and later on the effects are described, which I was a bit sonfused by. The book works more than it doesn`t ; it`s the story of a man who goes on holiday and gets sucked into the life of the village and how he impacts upon the people in it, with a heavy allegorical flavour.

[Little Pixie]

Book # 85 Burmese Days by George Orwell      TBR 697

 

Amazon Synopsis :

Set in the days of the Empire, with the British ruling in Burma, Burmese Days describes both indigenous corruption and Imperial bigotry, when 'after all, natives were natives - interesting, no doubt, but finally only a "subject" people, an inferior people with black faces'. Against the prevailing orthodoxy, Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Dr Veraswami, a black enthusiast for Empire. The doctor needs help. U Po Kyin, Sub- divisional Magistrate of Kyauktada, is plotting his downfall. The only thing that can save him is European patronage: membership of the hitherto all-white Club. While Flory prevaricates, beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen arrives in Upper Burma from Paris. At last, after years of 'solitary hell', romance and marriage appear to offer Flory an escape from the 'lie' of the 'pukka sahib pose'.

 

Quite a sad book. It`s evocatively written - the descriptions of the heat really make you feel it - but it`s difficult to get behind any of the `heroes` when they spend most of their time acting in an un-heroic manner. Bad things happen to good and bad people alike and while the writing stays with you, there`s no feeling of resolution. I know that`s just like in real life, but I do like a happy ending.

Edited September 21, 2013 by Little Pixie

[pontalba]

Lovely kitties.

 

Thank you!

 

Book # 85 Burmese Days by George Orwell      TBR 697

 

Amazon Synopsis :

 

Set in the days of the Empire, with the British ruling in Burma, Burmese Days describes both indigenous corruption and Imperial bigotry, when 'after all, natives were natives - interesting, no doubt, but finally only a "subject" people, an inferior people with black faces'. Against the prevailing orthodoxy, Flory, a white timber merchant, befriends Dr Veraswami, a black enthusiast for Empire. The doctor needs help. U Po Kyin, Sub- divisional Magistrate of Kyauktada, is plotting his downfall. The only thing that can save him is European patronage: membership of the hitherto all-white Club. While Flory prevaricates, beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen arrives in Upper Burma from Paris. At last, after years of 'solitary hell', romance and marriage appear to offer Flory an escape from the 'lie' of the 'pukka sahib pose'.

 

Quite a sad book. It`s evocatively written - the descriptions of the heat really make you feel it - but it`s difficult to get behind any of the `heroes` when they spend most of their time acting in an un-heroic manner. Bad things happen to good and bad people alike and while the writing stays with you, there`s no feeling of resolution. I know that`s just like in real life, but I do like a happy ending.

 

I have this on the shelf, will get to it, someday. /sigh/

[Little Pixie]

Thank you!

 

 

I have this on the shelf, will get to it, someday. /sigh/

 

It`s good but depressing; you have to be in the mood for it.

 

Now 200 pages into Incubus - Carol Goodman, which I`m adoring. I`ve already ordered book 2 in the series ( book 3 is out next month ).

[poppyshake]

Thanks for the review on Burmese Days LP .. that's another Orwell to add to the pile then

[Little Pixie]

Thanks for the review on Burmese Days LP .. that's another Orwell to add to the pile then

 

It didn`t put you off ?!

[poppyshake]

It didn`t put you off ?!

No .. I quite like unhappy endings

[Little Pixie]

Book # 86     Incubus by Carol Goodman        TBR 697

 

Amazon Synopsis :

'This is where all stories start, on the edge of a dark wood...' Ever since moving to Fairwick to take up a teaching post at the local college, Callie has been having vivid, erotic dreams about a man made out of moonlight and shadows. Dreams she begins to fear as well as anticipate...She learns that her home - a Victorian cottage at the edge of a wood she bought on a whim - is supposedly haunted. And then her new - and rather strange - colleagues tell her a local legend about an incubus demon with a human past who was enchanted by a fairy queen...

 

Amazon excerpt. -   Caution - some naughtiness form the start. 

 

 

Loved this book. Brilliant fun.

 

Callie is going to turn down a job as Asst. Professor at a small college in upstate New York, but goes for a run after her interview at the college, comes across a cottage for sale and is oddly drawn to it. She starts having vivid dreams there, which remind her of dreams she had as a teenager. To say what happens would be to spoil too much, but the book takes some interesting turns into the magical and whimsical. There are some things which happen which are just so delightful that I had to read them again.

 

It`s called `Incubus`, so there are some scenes of an adult nature in it, but they`re not crude or nasty ; at times, they`re deliberately amusing, " She was shtupped so vigorously in the kitchen that her Wedgewod teacups rattled ", oslt.

 

The only disappointment was the ending, which felt a bit rushed in a `setting up for the sequel` way. I`ve already ordered the next two books in the series ( I think it`s a trilogy ) and am looking forward to spending more time with the characters, which really appealed to me.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Little Pixie

[Little Pixie]

And the latest free Kindle books which I`ve downloaded...

 

 

One Wonderful Night A Romance of New York - Tracy, Louis

 

Jacob's Room - Woolf, Virginia

 

The American - James, Henry

 

Night and Day - Woolf, Virginia

 

Daniel Deronda - Eliot, George

 

Huntingtower - Buchan, John

 

Daisy Miller - James, Henry  

 

The Rome Express - Griffiths, Arthur

 

Dodo's Daughter A Sequel to Dodo - Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)

 

Dodo Wonders - Benson, E. F. (Edward Frederic)

 

The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 - Browning, Robert

 

Agatha Raisin and the Christmas Crumble (short story) - Beaton, M.C.

 

A Cold Day for Murder (Kate Shugak #1) - Stabenow, Dana

 

The Professor - Brontë, Charlotte

 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Brontë, Anne

 

Agnes Grey - Brontë, Anne

 

In Morocco - Wharton, Edith

 

Long Time Coming - Claire, Edie

 

Never Buried: Leigh Koslow Mystery Series, Book 1: Volume 1 - Claire, Edie

 

Murder in Half Moon Bay (Jillian Bradley Mysteries, No. 1) (A Jillian Bradley Mystery) - Thames, Nancy Jill

 

Romola - Eliot, George

 

Murder in Steeple Martin (Libby Sarjeant Murder Mystery Series) - Cookman, Lesley

 

 

I`ve also bought Carol Goodman`s Water Witch and Dark Possession, plus Mary Stewart`s Touch Not the Cat, after I found a used copy for £1.21.

 

Oh, and also pre-ordered the Complete Peanuts 1987-90.  

Edited September 25, 2013 by Little Pixie

[Athena]

Wow, that's a lot of books ! I might have to download some of those free ones too , at some point.

[Karsa Orlong]

723! 

 

[Little Pixie]

Wow, that's a lot of books ! I might have to download some of those free ones too , at some point.

 

I`m also thinking of downloading the free Trollope`s ; I read The Warden years ago and quite liked it and now I`m wondering if I should do a year of Trollope next year - there are 6 Palliser books and 6 Barsetshire books, so I`d read one per month.

[Little Pixie]

723! 

 

 

<< Sticks fingers in ears and sings I can`t hear you >>

[Janet]

I'm a bit late, Little Pixie, but I like the sound of Miss Mole - I've added it to my wish list.    It sounds just like my sort of thing.

 

I must read some Alan Coren.  I picked up one of his books a few months ago in a charity shop but didn't buy it in the end (I was trying to be good!).   I fancy one of his excerpts from his newspaper columns. 

[poppyshake]

I`m also thinking of downloading the free Trollope`s ; I read The Warden years ago and quite liked it and now I`m wondering if I should do a year of Trollope next year - there are 6 Palliser books and 6 Barsetshire books, so I`d read one per month.

I'd highly recommend the Barsetshire books .. I've only read one Palliser and that was good too but hard going as more political. Anyway .. free Trollope!! .. got to be a bargain

[julie]

Pixie

I can tell you are LOVING your Kindle 

[Little Pixie]

I'm a bit late, Little Pixie, but I like the sound of Miss Mole - I've added it to my wish list.    It sounds just like my sort of thing.

 

I must read some Alan Coren.  I picked up one of his books a few months ago in a charity shop but didn't buy it in the end (I was trying to be good!).   I fancy one of his excerpts from his newspaper columns. 

 

Yes, I can recommend Miss Mole ; it has a well rounded heroine who isn`t perfect ( for some reason, I`m now thinking of how annoyingly pefect and priggish Fanny was in Mansfield Park. Grr.  )

 

Love, love,love Alan Coren. So witty and still clever without being cleverclogs-ish.