Karen’s Comments (group member since Nov 23, 2019)

Karen’s comments from the VIRTUAL Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2020 group.

DECEMBER

Total books read in December: 28
Total qualifying for this challenge: 7

74 books read - so close to the top of the next peak, but it looks like I ended the year staying in Narnia after all.

74. Bound to the Battle God by Ruby Dixon.

4 stars. I have had many recommendations for Ruby Dixon books over the years. This seemed the most to my taste...and I really enjoyed it. Our intrepid heroine goes through a portal to the most sexist world ever, and ends up as anchor to a fallen God. Good fun. Maybe I might try her Ice Planet Barbarian series... blue aliens. Not really my thing but I feel more confident having read this book. And this one has a sequel for me to pick up.

Borrowed from the Kindle lending library. I think I am going to buy it.

73. Hag: Forgotten Folktales Retold edited by Carolyne Larrington.

4 stars. Some really good stories here.

Borrowed from the library.

72. Unbelievable by Sheridan Anne.

3 stars. I really enjoy this series. Now that Amazon are stopping the Kindle Lending Library service I might have to buy these books to continue reading them.

Borrowed from Kindle Lending Library.

71. Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon.

3 stars. A little disappointed in this book as it started so well. There is a weird plot failure in which someone goes out of the house at midnight (no torch is mentioned) and can see footprints clearly. And the way the women characters are treated is annoying. So annoyed as I thought this might get 5 stars at one point :(

Borrowed from the library.

70. A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry.

I have read at least one of these little novellas each year for the past few Christmases. I never love them, but they are enjoyable, quick reads to help get me in the mood.

Borrowed from the library.

69. Forever by Judy Blume.

3 stars. I am disappointed that I did not love this story. I probably would have done had I been a young teen, but the characters annoyed me. I like that it strives to be "realistic".

Borrowed from the library.

68. The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble.

3 stars. This is kind of a literary Barbara Erskine but I prefer to read Barbara Erskine (her earlier novels anyway). This is kind of two linked novellas and I preferred the first one in which we hear from the Crown Princess and her life story to the second which has a modern academic narrator.

Borrowed from the library.

NOVEMBER

Total books read in November: 29
Total qualifying for this challenge: 10

Challenge complete but since I don't think I'll hit the top of the next peak I will stay on this one.

66. Friends in High Places by Donna Leon.

3 stars. This one flowed better than some of her previous books but was not as tightly plotted as her best. This particular book would only work in Venice, and I liked that about it.

Borrowed from the library.

67. The Wise Men of Chelm and the Foolish Carp by Isaac Bashevis Singer.

3 stars. I appreciated the chance to read this Jewish folk story. I absolutely adored the illustrations.

Borrowed from my boyfriend.

64. King John by William Shakespeare.

3 stars. As history this totally sucks and it is clear that Tudor priorities were different (there is no Magna Carta) but this is an enjoyable read. It just lacks the depth of almost any other Shakespeare play out there. And William Marshal (Pembroke) fought on John's side, so would be spinning in his grave at his portrayal here.

Borrowed from the library.

65. Double Indemnity by James M. Cain.

3 stars. This is a really short novel but packs in quite a story. I enjoy American hardboiled crime novels in moderation, but I never really love them. Partly because of their portrayal of women - femme fatale ahoy here! Also, I cannot decide if I have read this before. The scene where he gets shot was so familiar...

Borrowed from my boyfriend.

63. Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante.

4 stars. Not a patch on the Neapolitan Quartet but better than the Days of Abandonment which is the only other book by her that I have read. Naples is wonderfully realised and I love coming of age stories. Here, Ferrante looks at how similar people are, regardless of social class, vulnerable and mean, lying to themselves and others. She looks at how men treat women (and vice versa) and presents an experience of growing up that is nothing like the Hollywood portrayal. A hard and harsh novel.

Borrowed from the library.

Thank you for your comment Sam and best wishes on your challenge.

62. Only Ever Yours by Louise O'Neill.

2 stars. This is my second Louise O'Neill book and I am beginning to think that while I love the concepts for her books I don't quite like the final product. This one is a dystopian set in a highly misogynistic world where women cannot be born naturally (but boys can...not really explained... how is this supposed to work?) and are divided into three groups, companions, concubines and the nun-like teacher chastities. Our characters are in school in the last year leading up to their selection by the men their age into which category they belong too. And the first problem is that ALL these women think about is themselves, their weight, their looks. SO BORING TO READ ABOUT. The world itself is not totally coherent. And worst of all, the people don't behave like real humans. Companions (possibly concubines too) are automatically killed when they reach 40. Seriously, what child would submit to their parent being killed for generation after generation. And the characters seem okay with this; knowing they will be killed later. Aggh! I don't see how a society without love and hope can survive. Oh, and the ending - the characters seem better off than those who "fit in" to the world so the ending is deprived of much of its shock value.

Borrowed from the library.

61. Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter.

3 stars. A page turner but lacks depth in characterisation. A good read.

Borrowed from Kindle Prime.

60. The Storms of War by Kate Williams.

2 stars. I enjoyed The Pleasures of Men by the same author when I read it. I had always intended to read more by her but I usually dislike historical novels set around the World Wars. Most of them are usually the same. However, having read a couple of very good Kate Quinn novels set during this period, and finding out that the Kate Williams book I own is the second in this trilogy, were my incentives for getting to read this at last.

However, I found the beginning half of the book boring and almost like the author was completing a ticklist - both of things these novels normally include and what had been going on in Downton Abbey - and she tried to cram too much in. I enjoyed the part where Celia was in France and the war years were a little better. But overall I just was not invested enough in the characters. The second book sounds a bit like a murder mystery so I will continue as that sounds more interesting.

Borrowed from the library.

Most importantly, I have hit my 2020 goal! Celebrations!

59. American Royals by Katharine McGee.

2 stars. I have had this book out from the library for a year and finally got round to reading it. I wasn't expecting a hugely detailed alternative history but this was just too frothy for me. The "villain" is the most detailed character and the character I did like the most, Nina, behaved in a cowardly way towards the end of the book which I thought was out of character.

Borrowed from the library.

58. The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths.

4 stars. Not quite as good as the first book in the series, but still a good read.

Borrowed from the library.

OCTOBER

Total books read in September: 26
Total qualifying for this challenge: 6

3 to go.

57. The House of a Hundred Whispers by Graham Masterton.

2 stars. I had never read anything by Graham Masterton before so I wasn't sure what to expect from his writing. What I was hoping for was a genuinely scary story so that I would be frightened to go to sleep! I didn't get it.

The book started well but despite the fact that it was about a genuinely horrifying circumstance the atmosphere felt flat. The characters were boring (especially the women), I didn't like the atheistic tone running through the book, the author really does not present his Catholic characters well, and the solution to the problem seemed so simple that is a wonder nobody had done it previously.

It was a quick read but not what I was expecting or hoping for.

Borrowed from my mother's library account.

56. Agatha Raisin: Hot to Trot by MC Beaton and RW Green.

3 stars. Good but not one of my favourites in the series.

Borrowed from the library.