julie Posted February 2, 2014 Share Posted February 2, 2014 Alexi 6 books in January sounds pretty good to me ! That's how many I've read ,and I think I'm on a roll so far . Just worried that my roll will slow down at some point , so I'm excited to have that many done in a month . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 (edited) Hi Julie - I think 6 in a month is pretty good too. Hope your roll continues! I went to the library today and took out four more books, and now I feel a bit pressured with my TBR, so I think I might make a real effort to decrease it to below 200 by the end of the year. Not going well - still acquired more than I've read so far in 2014!! First book for February: #7 The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin Synopsis: The women of Stepford are not all that they seem... All the beautiful people live in idyllic Stepford, Connecticut, an affluent, suburban Eden populated with successful, satisfied hubbies and beautiful, dutiful wives. For Joanna Eberhart, newly arrived with her husband and two children, it all seems too good to be true – from the sweet Welcome Wagon lady to all those cheerful, friendly faces in the supermarket checkout lines.But just beneath the town’s flawless surface, something is sordid and wrong – something abominable with roots in the local Men’s Association. And it may already be too late for Joanna to save herself from being devoured by Stepford’s hideous perfection.(From Amazon) Thoughts: This is a very short read - mine was 116 pages plus introduction, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I thought the length was perfect. Joanna and Walter move to Stepford, where Joanna has just one friend - Bobby - because the rest can't possibly socialise as there is too much housework to do. Meanwhile, the men all go (seemingly every evening!) to the mysterious Men's Association. After a while, Bobby becomes convinced something is drastically wrong with Stepford. The women are too perfect, and all seem to "change" after a few months in the town. I thought the mystery was really quite cleverly constructed. You go on a journey with Joanna as she discovers more background about the town's inhabitants and begins to have real fears about what exactly the men are doing at the mysterious association. But is she right, or is she merely going mad? I actually liked the open-ended nature of the ending. It seems obvious she was right all along, but we never actually have any proof of it! Unlike in the later film versions (there have been several) which brings me to... I remember vaguely seeing the 2004 movie adaptation with Nicole Kidman, so after finishing the book I looked up the movie on wikipedia. Wow. They changed everything that made the book so good - no wonder it got panned! The ending was entirely changed, and it ruined the whole message of the book. In the book, obviously the men are behind the women turning into robots, in this adaptation its actually a woman, who has turned her husband into the lead robot?! What now?! AVOID. AVOID. As for the book, I would definitely recommend it. I agree with the introduction though, it doesn't criticise Women's Lib at all, rather the opposite. It criticises men who seem to want nothing but perfectly docile beings who will do nothing except their bidding! 4/5 Edited February 3, 2014 by Alexi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobblybear Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Great review of The Stepford Wives. I read it last year and really enjoyed it. I've only seen bits of the Nicole Kidman movie but it sounds like one to avoid. What was open-ended about the ending? I can't recall......I vaguely remember Joanna was turned into a robot, and someone (the latest person to move to Stepford?) ran into her in the supermarket after she had been changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I've been toying with trying this. I have seen the NK film too - I'm glad to hear the book is better. I haven't clicked on your spoilers in case I do read the book so I can compare afterwards as I don't remember much detail about the film. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Great review of The Stepford Wives. I read it last year and really enjoyed it. I've only seen bits of the Nicole Kidman movie but it sounds like one to avoid. What was open-ended about the ending? I can't recall......I vaguely remember Joanna was turned into a robot, and someone (the latest person to move to Stepford?) ran into her in the supermarket after she had been changed. Sorry I didn't explain myself well! it isn't particularly open ended - I think it's obvious she is turned into a robot, but we never see any proof of that - it goes directly from her trying to escape to her in the supermarket months later - unlike in the film adaptations when it is made much clearer that they are all robots. Glad you enjoyed the book - even more reason to avoid the NK movie I've been toying with trying this. I have seen the NK film too - I'm glad to hear the book is better. I haven't clicked on your spoilers in case I do read the book so I can compare afterwards as I don't remember much detail about the film. I had the same reservations J - I could remember little about the NK movie except thinking it was crap! The book is much better - and you definitely won't recognise the ending from the NK movie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Oh dear - I rather fell off the wagon today. Three books bought!! The Railway Man - Eric Lomax The Misbegotten - Katherine Webb Hotel K - Kathryn Bonella Excited about them all though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marie H Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Ah, The Railway Man should be good. Happy reading (after the fall off the wagon ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Oh dear - I rather fell off the wagon today. Three books bought!! The Railway Man - Eric Lomax The Misbegotten - Katherine Webb Hotel K - Kathryn Bonella Excited about them all though! Not too bad a fall -and I bet you'll enjoy the books a lot . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Oh dear - I rather fell off the wagon today. Three books bought!! The Railway Man - Eric Lomax The Misbegotten - Katherine Webb Hotel K - Kathryn Bonella Excited about them all though! x I hope you enjoy your new books ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 9, 2014 Author Share Posted February 9, 2014 Thanks Marie, Athena and Julie Hotel K has been on my wish list ever since I finished her other book, Snowing in Bali, so when I saw it for 99p on Kindle daily deal, I was a goner! I finished Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs, and although it means I shall have rated two books 5/5 already this year, I felt unable to deduct any marks. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend it. I shall review it properly tomorrow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 10, 2014 Share Posted February 10, 2014 Excellent! I always like it when people enjoy books . I look forward to read your review. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs Synopsis: This is the story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of grandeur) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic into the bargain. Suddenly at the age of 12, Augusten found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian house in perfect squalor. The doctor's bizarre family, a few patients and a paedophile living in the garden shed completed the tableau. Here, there were no rules or school. The Christmas tree stayed up until Summer and valium was chomped down like sweets. When things got a bit slow, there was always the ancient electroshock therapy machine under the stairs.(From Amazon) Thoughts: the electroshock therapy machine is probably the least odd thing that occurs under the roof of the Finches! This really is a shocking memoir. Augusten starts off as a boy with almost OCD tendencies. His clothes have to be perfect (he is bothered about the crease in his trousers when he first goes round to the Finch residence) and everything has to be just so. That changes quite quickly as he is forced to adapt to a house where cockroaches roam free and nothing in the kitchen is clean. The story is written very cleverly, as after a while the reader becomes less shocked by what Augusten describes, in the same way as he became less shocked by events in his life. He doesn't go to school, has an affair with a man 20 years his senior and runs around with his foster sister Natalie, who emancipated herself at the age of 13 to go and live with a rich father! Abandoned by both his parents and forced to grow up in squalor without any formal education, most kids wouldn't have a chance. I was thoroughly drawn in by this memoir, and shocking as the stories were I didn't want the book to end. I don't want to say much more for fear of spoilers - just read it! Kylie linked to an article about the "real Finches" which I read after I had finished the book. It seems inevitable they would dispute the facts - they are hardly painted in a very sympathetic light - but Burroughs won the courts case (or they settled) but he won the right to call it a memoir, which is an important factor IMO. Thoroughly recommended. 5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Great review ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 12, 2014 Author Share Posted February 12, 2014 Thanks Athena I had a tidy up of my lists at the start of the thread and must confess to forgetting to add 7 of last year's acquisitions - all seven Jo Nesbo - to my TBR. So at the start of the year it stood at 223 and must be at 222 by the end of the year. Not doing well. I have read nine already this year, but have acquired 21. Not sure how on earth that has happened to be honest... Most were kindle daily deals or presents, so I haven't spent any more than £10 or so, but the length of the pile is starting to get silly now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 21 books for less than 10£ is cheap, but I do understand your TBR pile dilemma. Good luck in not buying many more books! I don't really have a lot of tips, my TBR is very big so it'd be silly if I were to try and give tips while I'm not 100% following them myself all the time. It's difficult when we see a book for cheap (ie. Kindle daily deal). You could stop checking the daily deal, but then you'd miss out on some good deals perhaps. I hope you'll get some more reading done though, reading 9 in the first ~40 days of the year is pretty good. Are there any books in your TBR pile that have been there for a long time or that you're no longer interested in? That way you could reduce it a little. What would you consider a good size TBR, or would you strive for no TBR? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 James dared me to count it, the one book challenge is from the BF He ruined it a bit by saying 30 minutes later that buying books makes me happy so why restrict it! Bahaha! It sounds like he should be encouraging you to buy more books! I really like the idea of challenging yourself to reduce your TBR pile by just one book. I might consider doing that myself! Considering how many books I usually buy per year, it would be incredibly difficult, but I'm feeling determined enough (at the moment) that I think I could do it! You and I have already read a couple of the same books this year (Burroughs and Christie) and we have many more of the same books on our TBR piles, so I can't wait to read your updates throughout the year. You've already inspired me to bump The Stepford Wives up the list. I've seen the Nicole Kidman movie and liked it OK, and my finger was just itching to read those spoilers you posted, but I managed to resist! There is another adaptation of the movie too - I think it's from the 1970s. I wonder if that one might be closer to the story? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Bahaha! It sounds like he should be encouraging you to buy more books! I really like the idea of challenging yourself to reduce your TBR pile by just one book. I might consider doing that myself! Considering how many books I usually buy per year, it would be incredibly difficult, but I'm feeling determined enough (at the moment) that I think I could do it! You and I have already read a couple of the same books this year (Burroughs and Christie) and we have many more of the same books on our TBR piles, so I can't wait to read your updates throughout the year. You've already inspired me to bump The Stepford Wives up the list. I've seen the Nicole Kidman movie and liked it OK, and my finger was just itching to read those spoilers you posted, but I managed to resist! There is another adaptation of the movie too - I think it's from the 1970s. I wonder if that one might be closer to the story? The reducing by one challenge is not going well at all at the moment But people keep giving me books, so what is a girl to do?? I think the 1970s film is closer to the book, so I might have to look it out at some point. I shall be following your progress Kylie, to see which books I should bump up my TBR A couple of reviews from me, because I have fallen behind a bit #9 A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle Synopsis: Doctor John Watson is looking for a new place to live when he is introduced to Sherlock Holmes, a peculiar man who happens to be looking for a roommate. Watson soon finds himself fascinated by Holmes’ numerous eccentricities—including the ability to deduce information about people without ever speaking to them. When a body is found next to the hastily scrawled word “RACHE,” Holmes’ scientific study of deduction is put to the test as Dr. Watson joins him in what will be the first of many thrilling investigations. (From Amazon) Thoughts: This is probably my least favourite Holmes book to date. I haven't been reading them in order, and this is the first one, and there is a noticeably different style to the writing (and the solution to the crime). I did enjoy reading about Holmes and Watson meeting, and Doyle has a great ability to make the reader feel like they are in the heart of London watching the action. The crime is clever, as usual, but for me the usual style of watching Holmes solve the crime and suddenly getting the solution was lost, because halfway through the novel we are taken back in time to watch the reasons ourselves (and the names used make it obvious that is what is happening). I's obviously just a different style to what I am used to from Doyle and his Holmes stories, and if I had read them in the correct order rather than jumping around, I'm sure it would have received a higher mark from me. I have just two novels and one short story collection to go until I have read all of them, and I shall be sad when I have nothing left of Holmes to read, so I shall make an effort to spread them out. 3/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 #10 Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier Synopsis: Stark and forbidding, Jamaica Inn stands alone on bleak Bodmin Moor, its very walls tainted with corruption. Young Mary Yellan soon learns of her uncle Joss Merlyn's strange trade here - but does he deal in blacker secrets still? (From Amazon) Thoughts: Wow. I've been missing out by not reading Du Maurier before now. What a scene she sets! We meet te heroine, Mary Yellan, as she is travelling across Cornwall, from her farm in Helford up to Jamaica Inn in North Cornwall, after the death of her Mum. I was drawn in straight away, by the descriptions of the wind, rain and desolate moors that set a tone for the rest of the book. Du Maurier can certainly write! The house she arrives at is grey and forbidding, with such a horrible reputation that the coach will not usually stop there and races away as soon as he dropped Mary at the side of the road. Her uncle is a large and scary man, and Mary soon discovers he is engaged in rather dodgy business. But is that enough to explain her aunt's terrified looks and constant fright, or is there more going on? The author has a great skill in giving the tale a growing sense of foreboding and building up towards a crescendo. Reading this for Cornwall in the English Counties Challenge, I thought it was a perfect choice, with the book really giving me a sense of the desolation of the moors, including the fog and mist and marshes that can kill a man, but also giving you a sense of the changing nature of the county. Where Mary comes from in the south, the geography is quite different, and I thought that was conveyed very well. I really liked the character of Mary and how independent she was, and how it was easy to see she might struggle being born as a woman in the 1800s - she would have fitted in perfectly in the modern times I suspect. She was brave and courageous, even if you could see a chink of her armour exposed when she was quick to trust a couple of stranger she had barely met! The above is why I deducted half a mark for: The ending - Which was a bit cheesy! And also annoying how she was the only one who was expected to compromise - she had to give up going back to Helford to travel with him. I'm not sure Helford life would have suited her actually, but that wasn't the point - Jem refused to contemplate going with her! I would thoroughly recommend this. 4.5/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Great reviews! I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy A Study in Scarlet as much as the other Sherlock Holmes books and stories you've read. I plan to start at the beginning so I look forward to see how I get on when I read it. I'm glad you enjoyed Jamaica Inn, I have Rebecca on my wishlist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Alexi I know what you mean about the TBR becoming a bit oversized. Mine is way too big ,so I'm in the process of eliminating some of the older books that have been around for ages . I probably won't read them or I would have already, so maybe if I reduce my stack a bit I'll be more inclined to read . I'm glad you liked Jamaica Inn. I read it many years ago and really loved it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Great reviews! I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy A Study in Scarlet as much as the other Sherlock Holmes books and stories you've read. I plan to start at the beginning so I look forward to see how I get on when I read it. I'm glad you enjoyed Jamaica Inn, I have Rebecca on my wishlist. I'll be very interested to see how you get on! Hound of the Baskervilles was one of my favourite books as a kid but just getting round to reading the rest! Julie - I know I could remove some of the older ones but I want to read them all at some stage so it would be silly really. I think I'd like to get down to around 100, so still plenty of choice for my next read but not overwhelming. At the moment, assuming I read 60 books a year it would take me 4 years to read them all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julie Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Alexi Yea, I know what you mean. My list is at a pretty overwhelming number too . I think I have 400-some on my Kindle ,which is too much of an overwhelming number for me ,so I'll probably take a look through and see if I can trim them down a bit more . There are probably some I'll never read ,so no reason to keep them . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ian Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Great review of Jamaica Inn, Alexi. I have to agree with you on the ending, it is a bit cheesy. I also think that it's a very abrupt ending - a problem that seems to seems to be in a lot of Du Maurier's books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexi Posted March 6, 2014 Author Share Posted March 6, 2014 I haven't posted in here in well over two weeks, so just popping by to say hi and offer cake... not chocolate though, as it's lent and I've given it up (along with crisps and sweets, hence cake) so a lemon drizzle will have to do you! I did finish one book in that time - Step Back In Time by Ali McNamara, which I enjoyed and review will follow. But my mojo seems to have deserted me somewhat. Feb/March/April is our busiest time of the year at work, so I am losing reading time, but I am really struggling with Dracula. That's really surprised me as I have heard great things and was really looking forward to it, but it just doesn't seem for me. I am persevering (it it's on several of my challenge lists and I also hate to abandon books once I have got halfway through - which I have just stuttered past) but it's slow going. Hmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athena Posted March 7, 2014 Share Posted March 7, 2014 (edited) I'm sorry to hear you're having mojo problems . I'm glad to hear you liked Step Back in Time, I have three books by Ali McNamara on my shelf but not that one so I look forward to read your review. I hope your mojo comes back soon. It's shame you're not enjoying Dracula. The book is on my TBR. Maybe you could read a second book alongside it to cheer up your mojo, or are you worried you'd be less interested in finishing Dracula? Edited March 7, 2014 by Athena Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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