Renniemist Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 The following are a list of books that are in my to be read pile. Now I know that there is no way that I am going to read them all this year, because I refuse to give up going to the library (I enjoy going) and I am also sure that I will browse in bookstores and be tempted (I love doing that). My list could well end up bigger at the end of the year than at the beginning, especially since there will be books to get for the reading circle. My philosophy for this year is to relax and enjoy books. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde Holy Fools by Joanne Harris The constant Gardener by John le Carré East Wind West Wind by Pearl S Buck The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle Bitten by Kelly Armstrong The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke The Abortionist’s Daughter by Elizabeth Hyde The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga Mauritius Command by Patrick O’Brien The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco Jamaica Inn by Daphne duMaurier Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell The Rice Mother by Rani Manicka Africa Diary by Bill Bryson Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Baudilino by Umberto Eco Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie Derailed by James Siegel Empire of the Sun by J G Ballard Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela Misery by Stephen King Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehrain Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi Russka by Edward Rutherfurd Shindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally The Accidental by Ali Smith The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson The Falls by Ian Rankin The Haj by Leon Uris The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw The Palace of Heavenly Pleasures by Adam Williams The Peoples Act of Love by James Meek The Sicilian by Mario Puzo The Suspect by Michael Robotham Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis Vernon God Little by D B C Pierre What the body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 15, 2007 Author Share Posted January 15, 2007 Read so far this year. December 58 The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler 7/10 57 Sharpe’s Trafalgar by Bernard Corrnwell 7/10 56 Brick Lane by Monica Ali 5/10 55 The Road by Cormac McCarthy 8/10 54 Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson Wright (audio book) 7/10 53 Sharpe’s Fortress by Bernard Cornwell 7/10 52 Border Crossing by Pat Barker 7/10 51 The Life of Pi by Yann Martel 8/10 November 50 Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson 6/10 49 A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving 10/10 48 The Ruby in her Navel by Barry Unsworth 7/10 47 Port Mungo by Patrick McGrath 8/10 46 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque 8/10 October 45 The Forest by Edward Rutherfurd 7/10 44 One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson 7/10 43 Animal's People by Indra Sinha 10/10 42 Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller 9/10 September 41 The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle 7/10 40 The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 7/10 39 Atonement by Ian McEwan 10/10 38 The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood 8/10 37 On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan 9/10 36 The Sea by John Banville 10/10 35 Arthur and George by Julian Barnes 7/10 34 Exodus by Leon Uris6/10 August 33 A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon 8/10 32 In The Country of Men by Hisham Matar 6/10 31 The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly 7/10 30 The Distance Between Us by Maggie O'Farrell 7/10 29 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday 8/10 28 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J K Rowling 8/10 27 Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery 8/10 July 26 The Covenant by James Michener 8/10 June 25 The Hills is Lonely by Lillian Beckwith 8/10 24 The Night Watch by Sarah Waters 9/10 23 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 7/10 22 Fruit of the Lemon by Andrea Levy 7/10 May 21 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro 9/10 20 Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood 7/10 19 The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell 9/10 April 18 My Lover's Lover by Maggie O'Farrell 7/10 17 A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon 8/10 16 Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky.. abandoned March 15 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 8/10 14 Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller 8/10 13 Every Light in the House Burnin' by Andrea Levy 7/10 12 The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld 6/10 February 11 After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell 9/10 10 Perfume by Patrick Suskind 8/10 9 A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle.6/10 8 On Beauty by Zadie Smith. 8/10 7 The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman. 8/10 January 6 An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro 7/10 5 Slow Man by J M Coetzee 7/10 4 The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell 7/10 3 The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler 6/10 2 The Butchers Wife by Li Ang 6/10 1 Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters 5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 15, 2007 Author Share Posted January 15, 2007 The year has started very slowly as far a books are concerned. I started Tipping the Velvet just before going on holiday. It was not nearly as good as Fingersmith in my opinion. Amazon.co.uk Review The heroine of Sarah Waters's audacious first novel knows her destiny, and seems content with it. Her place is in her father's seaside restaurant, shucking shellfish and stirring soup, singing all the while. "Although I didn't believe the story told to me by Mother--that they had found me as a baby in an oyster-shell, and a greedy customer had almost eaten me for lunch--for 18 years I never doubted my own oysterish sympathies, never looked beyond my father's kitchen for occupation, or for love." At night Nancy Astley often ventures to the nearby music hall, not that she has illusions of being more than an audience member. But the moment she spies a new male impersonator--still something of a curiosity in England circa 1888--her years of innocence come to an end and a life of transformations begins. The Butchers Wife was a very quick read. I read it on the flight home from Cape Town. Under traditional Chinese law, the only valid explanation for a woman murdering her husband is her adultery. In 1930s Shanghai a case came to light where a woman dismembered her husband. There was no evidence that the woman had ever had a lover. This inspired Li Ang to write a deep and harrowing novel about the situation that might lead to such a murder. Chen Jiangshui is a pig-butcher in a small coastal Taiwanese town. Stocky, with a paunch and deep-set beady eyes, he resembles a pig himself. His brutality towards his new young wife, Lin Shi, knows no bounds. The more she screams, the more he likes it. She is further isolated by the vicious gossip of her neighbours who condemn her for screaming aloud, because, as they see it: As women we're supposed to be tolerant and put our husbands above everything else. According to an old Chinese belief, all butchers are destined for hell (an eternity of torment by the animals they have despatched). Lin Shi, isolated, despairing and finally driven to madness, fittingly kills him with his own instrument - a meat cleaver. THE BUTCHER'S WIFE was a literary sensation in the Chinese language world with its suggestion that ritual and tradition are the functions of oppression. It also caused widespread outrage with its unsparing portrayal of sexual violence and emotional cruelty. The novel has made a profound impact on contemporary Chinese literature and today ranks as a landmark text in both women's studies and world literature. Amazon. I have now started on The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. Los Angeles PI Phillip Marlowe is working for the Sternwood family. Old Man Sternwood, crippled and wheelchair-bound, is being given the squeeze by a blackmailer and he wants Marlowe to make the problem go away. But with Sternwood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angel Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 My philosophy for this year is to relax and enjoy books. I like that philosophy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Poppy Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 Renniemist said My philosophy for this year is to relax and enjoy books. I'll third that! Seems very sensible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
everydayxangels Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 The Virgin Suicides - I personally liked this book! more so at the beginning. Towards the end I was thinking, "c'mon, just get on with it already." The Constant Gardener - I was so bumbed to learn that this was a book after I saw the movie. I can't read a book after I see the movie. Dunno why. But seeing the movie after the book is always a treat. On Beauty - I didn't like this one at all. I gave it the 75 page chance I give all my books, and normally the plot improves by then, but this one was just HORRIBLY SLOW i didn't stick around to finish. Devil in the White City - NOT for the faint of heart. Some of the murders with the details will make your skin CRAWL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted January 15, 2007 Share Posted January 15, 2007 There are a few on your list I've read & several I wantto read too, so I'll be waiting to hear what you think of them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 15, 2007 Author Share Posted January 15, 2007 The Virgin Suicides - I personally liked this book! more so at the beginning. Towards the end I was thinking, "c'mon, just get on with it already." The Constant Gardener - I was so bumbed to learn that this was a book after I saw the movie. I can't read a book after I see the movie. Dunno why. But seeing the movie after the book is always a treat. On Beauty - I didn't like this one at all. I gave it the 75 page chance I give all my books, and normally the plot improves by then, but this one was just HORRIBLY SLOW i didn't stick around to finish. Devil in the White City - NOT for the faint of heart. Some of the murders with the details will make your skin CRAWL. Its strange you should think that way about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janet Posted January 16, 2007 Share Posted January 16, 2007 I've had Schindler's Ark on my TBR pile for a few years! I might try to read it this year. I also like your philosophy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 16, 2007 Author Share Posted January 16, 2007 It has been on my list for quite some time too. I have no good excuse. Maybe I should commit myself to reading it by a certain time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 19, 2007 Author Share Posted January 19, 2007 I have finished reading The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler. I am never very keen on detective novels and I don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freewheeling Andy Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 I'm not a big fan of decective stuff on the whole, like you, but I love The Big Sleep. I'm not quite sure why. It might be the atmosphere that's generated, that it's not so much "Whodunnit?" It's more about Marlowe with the investigation running in parallel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 I really enjoyed 'Schindler's Ark', it didn't pull any punches, it was direct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely read it sometime this year but I don Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 I finished the Reading Circle book The Winter King by Bernard Cornwell. I enjoyed it and at sometime this year and will read the next book in the series. I have now also finished Slow Man by J M Coetzee. Paul Rayment is on the threshold of comfortable old age when a calamitous cycling accident results in the amputation of a leg. Humiliated, his body truncated, his life circumscribed, he turns away from his friends. He hires a nurse named Marijana, with whom he has a European childhood in common: hers in Croatia, his in France. Tactfully and efficiently she ministers to his needs. But his feelings for her, and for her handsome teenage son, are complicated by the sudden arrival on his doorstep of the celebrated Australian novelist Elizabeth Costello, who threatens to take over the direction of his life and the affairs of his heart. I enjoyed this book also. Although it is a pretty depressing subject you have to keep reading to see if Paul is going to cope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 I have now started on An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro. It is 1948. Japan is rebuilding her cities after the calamity of World War II, her people putting defeat behind them and looking to the future. The celebrated painter Masuji Ono fills his days attending to his garden, his house repairs, his two grown daughters and his grandson, and his evenings drinking with old associates in quiet lantern-lit bars. His should be a tranquil retirement. But as his memories continually return to the past Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polka Dot Rock Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 I think you and me have quite a similar taste in books Which means I'll be able to flog you some of mine later I'll just look at your list to see if I can recommend any, if I may... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polka Dot Rock Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Now, you know how in Tracy Marie's blog/list you said you hadn't yet read an Ishiguro better than Never Let Me Go? Well, I bought this straight after reading Never Let Me Go and, omg, it completely blew me away. Absolutely stunning! Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga I LOVE this so much I cannot articulate it! It's just one of the most incredible novels I've ever read: bursting with themes and idea yet totally readable. I cannot recommend this enough. The characters are wonderful! The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov These are two favourites of mine. Have you Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides? That's a wonderful novel. On Beauty by Zadie Smith My favourite book of last year If you go here, you'll see a review I did of it, if you so wish lol. The Accidental by Ali Smith I read this last summer and, sadly, I was disappointed with it. I admired the writing, but I found it quite forgettable. Sophie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted February 1, 2007 Author Share Posted February 1, 2007 Hi Amy Have been saving The Remains of the Day because everyone says it is great. Waiting for the right moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polka Dot Rock Posted February 1, 2007 Share Posted February 1, 2007 Oh yes, you'd read The Poisonwood Bible! I remember now... Ah bless the person who got you Nervous Conditions - it can be tricky to get: it seems to have a limited number of reprints and because it's popular for Postcolonial courses, it tends to disappear! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted February 2, 2007 Author Share Posted February 2, 2007 I have now finished An Artist of the Floating World. It was a good read. I really like Kazuo Ishiguro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polka Dot Rock Posted February 2, 2007 Share Posted February 2, 2007 I have now finished An Artist of the Floating World. It was a good read. I really like Kazuo Ishiguro Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 I have now finished reading The Complete Maus. I enjoyed it very much. I found it easy to read and will certainly read other Graphic Novels. I would like to compare this one with how others are written. I have now started On Beauty by Zadie Smith. Set in New England mainly and London partly, On Beauty concerns a pair of feuding Families Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renniemist Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share Posted February 21, 2007 I have finished On Beauty by Zadie Smith and I really enjoyed this book. Admittedly it was very slow to start with and I was beginning to wonder if I liked any of the characters, but it most definitely improved and was very funny in parts. I read White Teeth by Zadie Smith last year and I enjoyed it as well. I have now started on A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle. Born in the slum of Dublin in 1901, his father a one-legged whorehouse bouncer and settler of scores, Henry Smart has to grow up fast. By the time he can walk he is out robbing, begging, often cold always hungry, but a prince of the streets. At fourteen, already six foot two, Henry is in the General Post Office on Easter Monday 1916, a soldier in the Irish Citizen Army, fighting for freedom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polka Dot Rock Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 Glad you enjoyed On Beauty On the graphic novel front, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is a good graphic novel to read after Maus, I reckon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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