chesilbeach Posted December 23, 2009 Author Share Posted December 23, 2009 Never actually bothered with The Great Fire in the end, as I couldn't make my book group meeting, so moved onto The Tango Singer by Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted December 26, 2009 Author Share Posted December 26, 2009 Finally managed to finish The Tango Singer this morning, but I never managed to really get into the story, and felt no connection to the characters or the place of the book, so it was a disappointment for me as I'd been anticipating loving it. After that, I read The Mozart Question in a single, wonderful sitting. It is a beautiful short story by Michael Morpurgo about a world famous Italian violinist, who recounts the tale of his introduction to music and how his parents experiences in the war influenced his life to a young journalist. It brought a few tears not only by the lovely writing, but also by the beautiful atmospheric illustrations by Michael Foreman. I think I'm going to try and polish off the childrens and young adult books on my TBR shelves before the end of the year, and have a more serious reading session in the new year with the rest of my books waiting patiently to be read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted December 28, 2009 Author Share Posted December 28, 2009 I've just finished the sixth book in the House of Night series, Tempted by P.C. and Kristin Cast. Continuing the story of fledgling vampyre, Zoey Redbird, this instalment is much more character led with the eternal battle of good versus evil within the individuals taking the centre stage rather than the formula followed in earlier books, where it has been plot driven building to a battle at the end of each one. I'd been wondering whether to continue with the series as they were becoming so formulaic, but this one has piqued my interest in the story arc of the series, and it also finishes on a huge cliff-hanger, so there is no doubt I will be searching out the next book when it arrives on the bookshelves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 I read Christmas Spirit by Robert Westall yesterday. It's a compilation of two childrens Christmas stories, The Christmas Cat and The Christmas Ghost, and is in a lovely illustrated hardback edition (with a ribbon bookmark - I love these!). Two absolutely charming stories set between the wars which completely encapsulate the title of the book, the Christmas spirit, with a sense of nostalgia without being over sentimental and I would imagine would make lovely bedtime reading stories for children at Christmas time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Hmm glad to hear the House Of Night series has got back on track for you. I have them all up to the sixth, but have only read the first three at the moment. I plan to read the rest in new year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 I'm still in my childrens/YA mode at the moment, so I've started on the Missing series from Meg Cabot (written under the name Jenny Caroll) with the first book When Lightning Strikes. Sixteen year old Jessica Mastriani's life changes forever when, after being struck by lightning, she suddenly finds she has an astounding new psychic power, but whether or not this is a good or bad thing, Jess has yet to discover. There's lots of things I love about Meg Cabot's writing, but the ones that jump out at me from this book are that no matter what incredible situations her heroines find themselves in, she always grounds them in the real world, remembering they still have to deal with family issues (this time including a mental health problem), friends and peer pressure, and usually the prospect of first love and its repercussions, but always at a reasonably innocent level with nothing for parents to be concerned about. I like the premise of the story, which I don't want to give too much away about, and how the ending leaves it open to be developed further. Fortunately, I managed to buy the entire series of five books for just under Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted December 30, 2009 Author Share Posted December 30, 2009 I know there's still one day left in the year, but just wanted to add my reading review of the year to my 2009 reading blog before it gets closed on Friday ... I started the year with 97 books on my TBR pile, with the hopes of reducing this to 25 by the end of the year, meaning I had to read 72 books during the year to achieve my goal. Well, I read 141 books in total, but for some reason the TBR list now stands at 77! On that list of 77 books, 50 of them were there at the beginning of the year, so my usual love of bright, shiny, new things has overruled my good intentions to finally get round to all those books I've been meaning to read for ages. At the end of the day though, none of that really makes any difference - the important thing is which books have I enjoyed most this year, and these were my top five: 1. The Mapp and Lucia series by E. F. Benson I read all six books on the two eponymous English women by E. F. Benson this year in two anthologies, and all were brilliantly observed commentaries on the middle England of the 1930s and I thoroughly enjoyed chuckling along at the two ladies escapades. 2. Sacred Sierra by Jason Webster Not your run of the mill "let's start a new life abroad in a derelict farmhouse" book, but a mixture of natural history, geography, geology, local religion and folklore, this was an engrossing account of a year in the life of my favourite non-fiction author as he moves to a run down mas in the mountains of eastern Spain and tries to fulfil a long held dream of planting an arboretum. 3. Love Begins In Winter by Simon Von Booy For a long time now, I've wanted to read more books of short stories, and this year I read a few I enjoyed a lot, but top of my list was this collection based on the themes of love and childhood which was written in a fairly sparse style but was lyrical and beautifully expressed. 4. Bonjour Tristesse by Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted December 30, 2009 Share Posted December 30, 2009 Only 141 read, no push to 150?! (you still have 24 hours!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted December 31, 2009 Author Share Posted December 31, 2009 No push for 150 (even I can't read that much!), but I did finish a re-read of New Moon last night, and I've read another of the Missing series by Meg Cabot this afternoon taking my total upto 143, and I may even sneak another one in before the end of the night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raven Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 No push for 150 Pff, light-weight! (Well done on managing over seven times the number of books I did, anyway!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesilbeach Posted January 1, 2010 Author Share Posted January 1, 2010 Pff, light-weight! You're right, you're right, I know you're right. As school reports says: Must try harder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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