2025 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2016
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Kiwi’s 2016 challenges and book log
Maisie Dobbs, 3 starsIt turned out more a historical romance (set in WWI) than a mystery. I enjoyed this novel, but I’m not sure I’ll continue the series.
Currently reading: Life or Death
Life or Death, 3 stars. Satisfying mystery, well written and with a good pace, likeable characters (Audie, Moss and Desiree) and amusing dialogues.
and Confessions, 3.5 rounded up
The novel starts in a classroom with a speech in which a teacher explains the motive for a twisted revenge on two of her students. The story moves through time with every chapter presenting a different character POV, each of them adding their own piece to the dark puzzle.
The Japanese setting felt culturally different to me; it may account for the fact that the characters felt cold - or it may have been the author intent? None of them is a likeable character.
There are many shocking twists in this short novel, they come out of nowhere (e.g. the blow that hits the reader at the end of the first chapter … wham!), moreover, they are delivered in a terse and emotionless prose, which makes the novel all the more creepy.
Not perfect, but I’d recommend as a nice change from many run of the mill thrillers.
Started The Passion of Artemisia, read only a few chapters before abandoning it. Way too melodramatic, no depth.So I've picked a non fiction book about Artemisia: Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, it's an art book (collection from a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition), it provides both artists biographies, the context for their art as well as nice study of their paintings.
Also started When Breath Becomes Air and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
When Breath Becomes Air, 3 stars:I’m ducking….I know this review isn’t going to be popular; giving this book only 3 stars feels mean, but allow me to explain.
I sympathise with the author and I genuinely think that Paul’s early death was a tragedy for his family and a true loss for all the potential patients that he could have helped had he lived longer.
I wanted to love this book, but if I am honest, I didn’t feel emotionally attached to Paul’s writing.
By comparison, I enjoyed and was moved by and . Morrie’s message was to get your priorities right. Randy’s intent was for you to reflect on what legacy you want to leave. In both books the message was positive, it wasn’t about dying it was about living. I was expecting a similar experience with this book but it didn’t happen.
Fav. Quotes:
… to the patient and family, the brain surgery is usually the most dramatic event they have ever faced and, as such, has the impact of any major life event. At those critical junctures, the question is not simply whether to live or die but what kind of life is worth living.
Would you trade your ability—or your mother’s—to talk for a few extra months of mute life? The expansion of your visual blind spot in exchange for eliminating the small possibility of a fatal brain hemorrhage? Your right hand’s function to stop seizures? How much neurologic suffering would you let your child endure before saying that death is preferable?
Because the brain mediates our experience of the world, any neurosurgical problem forces a patient and family, ideally with a doctor as a guide, to answer this question: What makes life meaningful enough to go on living?
When there’s no place for the scalpel, words are the surgeon’s only tool.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, 5 stars:If you feel like reading a heart-warming story, you can’t go wrong with one of Fannie Flagg’s novels.
I should be rating this 4 stars but decided to upgrade it to 5 because I would love to sit down with Mrs Virginia (Ninny) like old friends, listening to her reminiscing, and perhaps try some of Sipsey’s recipes included at the end of the book.
Fav. Quote:
I just wonder how many people never get the one they want, and wind up with the one they're supposed to be with.
I've reached my 100th book from my old (pre 2016) TBR **happy dance** Oh Yeah, oh Yeah!Still reading Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi and just started Dark Matter, I'm so excited for this one!
July summary# Books read: 26
# Pages read: 9,082
Average Rating: 3.12
Best book of the month: Catherine The great (NF) / Fried green tomatoes at the whistle stop cafe (F)
Best yield/payoff book: Shift (3 challenges)
Challenges completed (3):
• Challenge two: New To Me authors challenge:12/12 on 12 July
• Challenge three: Recommended – 6/6 on 14 July
• Page Challenge: 50,000 pages on 18 July
first August book completed:Dark Matter, 3.5 stars:
Hard to comment on this book without giving away too much. Even the general idea would probably act as a spoiler. It’s better to go into this novel with no expectations, so I won’t say what I liked and what was meh. You can tell that the author is a screenwriter as it would make a great action movie.
It was a fun read
just started The Night Gardener
164.The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier ***165. Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi by Keith Christiansen ***
166. The Face of a Stranger by Anne Perry ***
This novel started really strong for me, great writing, but the mystery was obvious (I saw the big "twists" coming very early on) and the post WWI theme was done with a heavy hand (too many repetition of the horror of war and its consequences).
I liked it, but did not wow me, not sure whether I'll continue this series.
167. Mockingbird by Walter Tevis ***
Kingmaker: Winter Pilgrims, 3.5 stars:This is a well written historical action/adventure novel.
Sure, the storyline is predictable, some of the secondary characters one-dimensional and even the main characters conveniently versatile (view spoiler), but overall it is an engaging adventure tale.
The aspects of medieval life are particularly well done, for instance the descriptions of the soldiers’ armour and weapons, their condition during the campaigns and the grim daily life for the commoners and peasants left to fend for themselves in the wake of wars. The action in battles were exciting but the parts focused on the protagonists were equally engaging.
I enjoyed the author’s writing style, definitely richer than most historical novels, but, although this book ends with a cliffhanger, I will probably not continue with the next in the series because this historical setting is not among my favourites.
Recommended to people interested in the War of the Roses period.
I got lucky and got 2 consecutive five stars books ! Yay!Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts:
Extremely interesting social psychology book on the reasons why do people do the things they do.
The author presents compelling arguments (supported by the evidence of many studies and experiments) for some puzzling human behaviours, such as why people insist on justifying indefensible positions long after they are proven wrong. She explains, among other things, the power of gifts (even low value) in swaying decision making, the reasoning behind stereotypes and strongly denied biases (and why no one is immune of such behaviour), the fallacy of memory (distorted or confabulated memories leading to the extremes of believing themselves victims of sexual abuse or alien abduction).
Other areas for which dissonance and obstinate self-justification are problematic include law enforcement (that could results in false confessions and wrong criminal prosecution), relationships (leading to nasty quarrels and divorce) and conflicts (to extremes of torture and war crimes).
Highly recommended. 4 stars rounded up because I just loved the last chapter on the attitudes to learning and the importance of encouraging children to accept their mistakes.
As per usual, a selection of my favourite quotes (and there are many, many more):
Between the conscious lie to fool others and unconscious self-justification to fool ourselves lies a fascinating gray area, patrolled by that unreliable, self-serving historian—memory. Memories are often pruned and shaped by an ego-enhancing bias that blurs the edges of past events, softens culpability, and distorts what really happened.
Prejudices emerge from the disposition of the human mind to perceive and process information in categories. "Categories" is a nicer, more neutral word than "stereotypes," but it's the same thing.
The brain is designed with blind spots, optical and psychological, and one of its cleverest tricks is to confer on us the comforting delusion that we, personally, do not have any. In a sense, dissonance theory is a theory of blind spots—of how and why people unintentionally blind themselves so that they fail to notice vital events and information that might make them question their behavior or their convictions.
Just as we can identify hypocrisy in everyone but ourselves, just as it's obvious that others can be influenced by money but not ourselves, so we can see prejudices in everyone else but ourselves. Thanks to our ego-preserving blind spots, we cannot possibly have a prejudice, which is an irrational or mean-spirited feeling about all members of another group. Because we are not irrational or mean spirited, any negative feelings we have about another group are justified; our dislikes are rational and well founded. It's theirs we need to suppress.
Understanding how the mind yearns for consonance, and rejects information that questions our beliefs, decisions, or preferences, teaches us to be open to the possibility of error. It also helps us let go of the need to be right. … When confidence and convictions are unleavened by humility, by an acceptance of fallibility, people can easily cross the line from healthy self-assurance to arrogance.
At all ages, people can learn to see mistakes not as terrible personal failings to be denied or justified, but as inevitable aspects of life that help us grow, and grow up.
Beacon 23: The Complete Novel: Humans are engaged in a lengthy war with an alien race. While stationed at one of the space beacons (that ensure safe spaceships traffic), a veteran encounters some unlikely hardware malfunctions and bizarre visitors to his lonely outpost. Could these incidents be the results of PTSD or is the beacon messing up with his mind?
Before long, he will need to make decision with far reaching consequences, would he choose treason to end the war? or is he insane?
I like sci-fi but it is difficult for me to find a book that knocks my socks off, this one did!
After the partial disappointment of Shift earlier this year, Hugh Howey is back in my good books, I enjoyed Beacon 23 as much as I did Wool Omnibus. Loved the audio version by Ryan McCarthy too, terrific narration!
Highly recommended to sci-fi fans. 4.5 stars
Favourite quote:
The dangerous phase is when that’s happening and you can’t see it. When you think you’re sane, so the crazy is all invisible. The reason I wear a rock around my neck is to be reminded of my propensity to lose my grip on reality. Rocky hasn’t uttered a peep in a while. I’m getting better, I swear.
My latest reads:171.The Apothecary Rose: The Owen Archer Series - Book One by Candace Robb ***
172. Margeau Chapeau by Margeau Soboti **
173. Knitted Wraps & Cover-Ups by Annie Modesitt **
174. Weekend Hats by Cecily Glowik MacDonald ***
175. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls *****
176. A Necklace of Raindrops and Other Stories by Joan Aiken ***
another 5 stars, August looks like my most successful month so far :)
Currently reading the second book in the Chronicle of the Unhewn Throne trilogy: The Providence of Fire
177. The Providence of Fire by Brian Staveley ****178. Join by Steve Toutonghi ****
Thought provoking. The story is part thriller and part vision of human evolution. It pivots on the idea of “Join”, a future technology that enables humans to combine their minds while keeping separate bodies (drives).
“Join” has advantages. Virtual immortality is an obvious one, even if your body perishes, your personality would survive in the joined “entity”, or would it? (view spoiler)
What about not having regrets? your “being” could experience multiple lives, you wouldn’t have to make exclusive decisions; for instance, in your career path, you could be an artist AND a scientist.
In fact, it is advisable for people to join with abilities and skills different from their own, young and old in order to have more choices and a broader perspective. “You” could simultaneously be male and female.
Joining is expensive and has limitations; moreover, it comes with strict procedures to ensure its success. It is not advisable to have more than 20 concurrent drives, the risks are instability (e.g. body tics and seizures) and eventually integration failure (due to incompatibility), aka “flip”, if rules are bypassed.
And then there are the consequences to society. There is a potential for the wealthy to abuse of the technology. Individuals that, either by choice or by lack of funds, decide not to join, aka solos, are concerned about the deteriorating state of the planet environment (Earth is plagued by draught and violent storms). They also resent the increasing organisation of society and privilege around joins, leaving them marginalised. Some solos prefer to live in isolated communities, for this reason they are nicknamed “feral”, like animals.
In this society, what does it mean to be human? Solos believe that humans are the ones who remain in the same state they are born, i.e natural. Doesn’t it equate to say that joins are unnatural?
The mystery part was not as strong as the dystopian aspect. (view spoiler)
This was a fascinating but challenging read for me. At the beginning, I got confused and frustrated by the many characters, so I wrote down a character map to keep track of who was who, and that helped a lot.
It is an impressive a debut novel and I’m looking forward to the author’s future work. Highly recommended to all SF fans.
With providence of fire I completed personal challenge #5: TBR favourites.now reading Pippi Longstocking as my choice for "a favourite book from your childhood" (challenge #18) and I'm planning to start One Foot in Eden
179. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren ****180. One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash ****
181. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter **
182. Storm Front by Jim Butcher ***
183. Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang **
184.Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky *****
additional short story: Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer ** (Hugo 2016)
latest book reads update185.Exigency by Michael Siemsen * (DNF)
186. Heartbroke Bay by Lynn D'urso * (DNF)
187. The Short Drop by Matthew FitzSimmons ***
188.The Rush: America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848-1853 by Edward Dolnick ****
August Summary
# Books read: 26
# Pages read: 7,767
Average Rating: 3.19
Best book of the month: Mistakes were made (NF) / The Glass Castle (F)
Best yield/payoff book: Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey (3 challenges)
Challenges completed (4):
• Challenge six: Famous people challenge 8/8 on 8 Aug
• Challenge five: TBR Favourite Genre challenge:24/24 on 20 Aug
• Challenge 18: 26 books in 2016 : 26/26 on 21 Aug
• Challenge 4: Take a Chance challenge: 6/6 on 24 Aug
In August I decided to read outside my comfort zone, the result has been great, 10 books rated 4 stars or more. Of course some gambles didn’t pay off, there were 2 DNF which brought my average rating down, but overall I’m happy with it. In September I will continue picking books mainly from my TBR. My hope is to complete all my remaining personal challenges (except genre of the month, which will continue until December), so the plan is for me to read:
• 12 books (to reach my goal of 200 books for the year)
• The Orenda (to complete History challenge) which I'm currently reading
• A re-read (to complete Bingo #2)
• Two or more books for this month genre: Travel or different culture
Currently reading a couple of books on the history of Venice, my favourite city in the world!
The Orenda, 3.5 starsSlow moving narrative, richly descriptive, it gives the reader an immersive and atmospheric experience.
The story is told in first person by three narrators (a Huron warrior, an Iroquois girl and a Jesuit missionary) and develops over several years. The tone of the book is sombre, sad, the pace very slow at the beginning (so much so that I found hard getting attached to the characters) but fortunately it picks up at about half way through, so if tempted to give up, do persevere, it gets better.
It was fascinating to learn about North America indigenous culture, Native customs, spirituality and beliefs, but I was unprepared for the level of violence in the book (view spoiler).
The Couple Next Door, 3.5 stars:Gripping thriller, plenty of unexpected turns.
The things that bothered me were the little “summaries” after each plot twist (where one character had to spell out what he/she knows of the situation so far) and the last chapter that was unnecessary IMO. Solid debut, I will definitely check out Shari Lapena’s next book.
Venice: A New History and The Modern Scholar: A History of Venice: Queen of the Seas, 3.5 stars eachThis book traces the history across the centuries of the city called the jewel of the lagoon. The magnificent city and its fiercely independent people are the protagonists, this famous conservative republic based on international commerce and trade, that valued stability and, of course, money (aka sghei).
The reader travels across time from humble beginning as a community of refugees to the peaks of its medieval power, from its renaissance splendour to its inevitable commercial decline, from Napoleon’s crushing conquest to the city of today, overrun by tourists.
The books provides the historical background to many of the city sights (Zanipolo, I Frari, Arsenale, Lazaretto, Bridge of sighs, Rialto etc.), and recounts the interesting life of some of her famous sons (Enrico Dandolo, Marco Polo, Carlo Zeno and Vettor Pisani, Casanova) and influential artists (Tiziano, Tintoretto, Palladio, Tiepolo, Vivaldi and Byron).
Recommended as an introduction to anyone planning a visit to this beautifully unique city or interested in its history. It covers in more detail the same content included in the earlier released audio-course The Modern Scholar: A History of Venice: Queen of the Seas by the same author, which I’d also recommended if you prefer to learn with your ears.
Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, 3 stars:Some good laughs to while away the time in between reads
CUSTOMER: Hi. BOOKSELLER: Hi there, how can I help?
CUSTOMER: Could you please explain Kindle to me.
BOOKSELLER: Sure. It’s an e-reader, which means you download books and read them on a small hand-held computer.
CUSTOMER: Oh OK, I see. So . . . this Kindle. Are the books on that paperback or hardback?
CUSTOMER: I’ve been looking through your geography section – I can’t find any books on Atlantis. BOOKSELLER: You know, I think we managed to lose those.
CUSTOMER: Where do you keep Hamlet? You know ‘to be or not to be’? Is it in philosophy?
Pop. 1280, 2.5 stars:I don’t remember how this book ended up in my TBR, it was not what I was expecting.
A smart sheriff who likes to play dumb, a sarcastic psyco too. Cold-blooded murder meet comedy, crude and offensive humor, witty at times, mostly not so. For me it was a quick read, not very funny and not as good as I hoped for.
City of Thieves, 4 stars:
Beautifully woven WWII story with the siege of Leningrad as a backdrop, it seesaws between vulgarity and poetry. A story of an absurd quest (find a dozen eggs among the starved) where survival is the ultimate prize. Credible characters, a tale of friendship and love.
Recommended.
Fav. Quotes:
Contrary to popular belief, the experience of terror does not make you braver. Perhaps though, it is easier to hide your fear when you're afraid all the time.
There was no one left in the city who knew my full name. I felt no great misery for myself, just a kind of dull curiosity that I still seemed to be alive, my exhalations still visible in the moonlight, this son of Cossacks still marching beside me, looking at me from time to time to make sure I kept moving, checking the night sky for bombers.
There is a place beyond hunger, beyond fatigue, where time no longer seems to move and the body’s misery no longer seems fully your own.
One of the bootless Russian soldiers had stopped walking. Other men from his captured unit begged him to move, pleading and cursing. He shook his head, never saying a word, his feet rooted in the snow. A friend tried to shove him forward, but it was useless; he had chosen his spot. When the troopers rushed over, waving their submachine guns and hollering in their own language, the Red Army men reluctantly backed away from their doomed comrade. He smiled at the Germans and raised one hand in a mock Nazi salute. I looked away just in time.
The Devotion of Suspect X, 2 starsThe Builders, 2 stars
My Sister's Grave, 3 stars
Cry to Heaven, 3.5 stars
A sensual tale of revenge. I wanted to read a book set in Venice and I remembered I enjoyed this novel many years ago. This book recreates Italy (Venice ambience is done beautifully, but also Naples and Rome) in the 18th century really well, the historical aspects are spot on, the costumes, the music and visual arts, the places, the atmosphere all vividly described.
There’s a lot more sex than I remembered, a lot of drama (fit for the Opera, hehe) but it should have been edited to a shorter version IMO. I guess my tastes have somewhat moved on, but it wasn’t the disappointment I feared, I’m glad I have re-read it.
3.5 stars rounded up because of the dramatic final scene in Venice (reminiscent of a Greek tragedy).
with this book I completed all my personal challenges (except for the monthly theme).
Currently reading: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake and Francesco's Venice: The Dramatic History of the World's Most Beautiful City
Updating ...200. The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield ***
201. Dances with wolves by Michael Blake ***
202. A hero in France by Alan Furst **
203. Francesco’s Venice by Francesco Da Mosto ***
204. Gone baby gone by Dennis Lehane **
205. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx:There’s a lot to learn when you take your time to listen, just ask Quoyle.
Our dull and lonely hero, who is not much to look at, struggles to keep a shaky job as newsreporter and patiently puts up with a cheating wife. Quoyle decides to leave his past behind and, with two young daughters and an old auntie in tow, rebuilds a new life in the land of his ancestors: Newfoundland.
Even if he has never lived there, Quoyle feels a strong pull to this bleak and harsh land. Working at the local newspaper, reporting on car wrecks and the shipping news (recording ship arrivals and departures from the harbour), he will get to know the rugged locals.
They welcome him as one of their own and reward his patience with their own life stories, from old mariner’s yarns, tales of dangerous storms and sturdy vessels to sad stories of shipwrecked farm boys. Quoyle will finally find a place to call home in this little corner of the world called Killick-Claw.
While the many colourful inhabitants’ tales are fascinating (view spoiler) Quoyle’s own story, by contrast, is mundane, even the ending is in tone with his quiet character, a kind of contentment of the meek.
What I liked best in this novel was the writing, Ms Proulx style is deliciously descriptive and poetic, you can almost smell the cold sea and the wind:
On the horizon icebergs like white prisons. The immense blue fabric of the sea, rumpled and creased. Small in the distance. Waves bursting against the headlands. Exploding water.
Of the rugged land:
The tide still on the ebb in that complex swell and fall of water against land, as though a great heart in the center of the earth beat but twice a day. These waters, thought Quoyle, haunted by lost ships, fishermen, explorers gurgled down into sea holes as black as a dog’s throat. Bawling into salt broth.
Vikings down the cracking winds, steering through fog by the polarized light of sun-stones. The Inuit in skin boats, breathing, breathing, rhythmic suck of frigid air, iced paddles dipping, spray freezing, sleek back rising, jostle, the boat tom, spiraling down. Millennial bergs from the glaciers, morbid, silent except for waves breaking on their flanks, the deceiving sound of shoreline where there was no shore. Foghorns, smothered gun reports along the coast. Ice welding land to sea. Frost smoke. Clouds mottled by reflections of water holes in the plains of ice. The glare of ice erasing dimension, distance, subjecting senses to mirage and illusion. A rare place.
And what about this for a character description?
Diddy Shovel’s skin was like asphalt, fissured and cracked, thickened by a lifetime of weather, the scurf of age. Stubble worked through the craquelured surface. His eyelids collapsed in protective folds at the outer corners. Bristled eyebrows; enlarged pores gave the nose a sandy appearance. Jacket split at the shoulder seams.
Although is not going to feature among my 'best of the year' reads, I am glad to have read it and to be able cross this Pulitzer Prize novel out of my lists. 3.5 stars
206. Screw You Dolores by Sarah-Kate Lynch:When I saw this book on the shelves at my local library, I did a double take, then I read the subtitle "A wicked approach to happiness", this is not what it appears at first glance. It’s a funny coming of age memoirs, it’s about not caring what other people think, say or do. Boy, do I agree!
The author is hilarious, but sometimes she comes across a bit snotty (that and the insistent self-promotion cost her one of my stars). I’m not sure if the book is available outside NZ, but if you’re lucky enough to live in Aotearoa, are female and craving something light and uplifting, read this!
3.5 stars
Just started: Stone of Farewell the second in the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn fantasy trilogy andOrhan's Inheritance for this month genre: travel/ different culture
Kiwi wrote: "205. The Shipping News by Annie Proulx:There’s a lot to learn when you take your time to listen, just ask Quoyle.
Our dull and lonely hero, who is not much to look at, struggles to ..."
My high school English teacher gave this book to me when I graduated. I barely finished it. I think I was generous and gave it 2 stars. I am wondering what bumped it to 3.5, in your opinion? Some of the language use was really nice, but I just could not stay interested.
Hi Stephanie, I can see why this novel is not for everyone. The style is very subtle, you could say it has a monotonous rhythm. I like nice language but personally I think on its own is not enough.It is a quiet, sad book, with not much action. It is certainly not a "transformation" kind of book (where the protagonist is revealed to be a hero in disguise and a story that concludes with a spectacular happy ending).
The language and the imagery is what I liked best, but in the novel I found enough interesting stories, from "the aunt" and the characters around Quoyle, that kept me reading. I find life in inhospitable places like Newfoundland fascinating (I have a soft spot for Vikings :-). For these reasons I rated it 3.5 stars.
My decision for rounding it down to 3 is because my definition of 4 stars is a book that I would recommend to all my friends, whereas I acknowledge that this book may not suit everyone's tastes.
Happy reading!
Kiwi wrote: "Hi Stephanie, I can see why this novel is not for everyone. The style is very subtle, you could say it has a monotonous rhythm. I like nice language but personally I think on its own is not enough...."Makes sense. I was just wondering. I am fascinated by the difference in personal taste in stories and writing style. So, when someone sees something as so different from the way I do, I automatically want to understand why.
Orhan's Inheritance, 3.5 stars:A nice debut novel, based on the true stories of the author’s grandmother and the survivors of the deportation and ethnic purging of the Armenian minority occurred in 1915 under the Ottoman government.
It’s a sad story about a time period and place (Anatolia, a region of Turkey) which I wanted to know more about. This novel prompted me to research the Armenian genocide, which Turkish government refuses to acknowledge to this day. What happened to the Ottoman Armenians just over 100 years ago is a controversial topic, a precursor of the holocaust in WWII, but while the latter is widely known and talked about, the Armenian pogrom is quietly swept under the carpet of history.
In this novel, I appreciated how the emphasis of the story was on the women and the children (Fatma, Lucine/Seda, Bedros, Aram, Ahmet), in any conflict, they are the ones who and pay the highest price and bear the most.
Fav. Quote:
What your grandfather didn’t understand is that strength comes in different disguises. It does not always ride a mighty horse or wield a shiny sword. Sometimes we have to be like a riverbank, twisting and turning along with the earth, withstanding swells and currents. Enduring.
(from the author’s note) For me , the hidden stories of people, families and places, exotic or familiar, aren’t meant to be entombed in silence. When uncovered and shared, they make the world just a little bit better.
208. Rain, Reign by Martin, Ann M. **209. Stone of farewell by Tad Williams ***
Beautiful prose, interesting and complex world, an extensive cast of well defined characters (even females!), however the pace was slower that I would have liked, I wasn’t exactly bored but I felt I was meandering along the story.
210. The convictions of john Delahunt by Andrew Hughes **
211. The thief by North, Claire ***
212. Pretty Baby by Kubica, Mary ***
213. The invisible life of Ivan Isaenko by Stambach, Scott *
DNF at 50%
I hate to be a buzzkill, everybody else seems to love this novel but it didn’t work for me. Ivan’s clever antics were amusing but I didn’t connect with him as I would have expected and I unfortunately I didn’t like Polina as a character either.
The story didn’t resonate with me, it seemed implausible and emotionally manipulative. It’s strange because I quite liked The Fault in Our Stars which featured a similar doomed young love story, Ivan and Polina story reminded me of John Green’s one, without the tenderness of feelings.
No point for me continuing when I have a stack of other books I want to get into.
September summary# Books read: 25
# Pages read: 8,409
Average Rating: 2.88
Best book of the month: Venice a new history (NF) /City of Thieves (F)
Best yield/payoff book: The Orenda (3 challenges)
Challenges completed (2):
• Challenge seven: History 12+6/12 on 8 Aug
• Goodreads challenge: 200 books on 13 Sep
After the highs of August, September was a disappointing reading month for me with a low average rating and no 5 star books, but October is finally here!
The theme for this month is Thriller/Mystery/Horror and given there’s still three months till the end of the year and I’m running out of challenges, I’ve decided to try another BINGO, this one is family oriented with some children’s books award winners. Bingos, I can’t resist ’em!
First couple of reads for October:214. Trigger warning by Gaiman, Neil **
As per other collections of short stories, this one is a mixed bag, sorry to say that the ones I liked were only a few (e.g. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains and Click-Clack the Rattlebag).
215. The price of salt /Carol by Patricia Highsmith ***
Patricia Highsmith is a great writer but the story itself was a bit flat. Immediately after reading, I watched the movie with Cate Blanchett, which I’ve heard a lot about, and it’s great.
I loved what the director has done with the story and captured the atmosphere of the 50s, one of the rare instances where the movie was better than the book IMO.
Currently reading: The Invention of Wings and continuing Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City
216.Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman ****A very adult retelling of the famous fairy tale, told from the stepmother’s POV.
Dark, definitely not for children’s audience, but as a horror short story it was surprisingly true to the original with the right amount of creepiness for me. Recommended.
(It is available free on The Dreaming website.)
217. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd ****218. Pompeii: The History, Life and Art of the Buried City by Marisa Ranieri Panetta ****
219. Una questione privata by Beppe Fenoglio ****
220. The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks **
221. Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons ***222. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier **** (re-read)
223. Black Dog by Levi Pinfold **
224. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen ****
225. The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson ****What a find! The setting for this novel is a small community in rural northern Ontario, the timeframe spans a few decades, from the 30s with the great depression, through the Second World War to the early 60s. The main characters are the Dunn brothers: Arthur and Jake, as different as they could be, one plain, quiet and dependable, down to earth worker, the other handsome, risk taker and adventurous but also a trouble maker. Their story jumps around in time, but mainly follows two strands, one follows the two brothers growing up from childhood to teens. The second is set in a summer in the 60s, with Arthur, now adult, working their late father farm with the help of Ian, the son of the local doctor who is secretly attracted to Arthur’s wife beautiful wife Laura. These two time strands converge towards the end of the book, when Jake suddenly returns home.
As the story develops, the underlying tension among the characters increases and culminates in a dramatic, albeit rather predictable, finale. It is a story of sibling rivalry, jealousy, duty, guilt, obsessive infatuation, personal choices and the weight of expectations. I loved the author’s believable characterisation and masterful storytelling. The audio narration by Paul Hecht was wonderful too.
This was my first novel by Mary Lawson, but it will not be my last. Highly recommended.
Currently reading: The Long Ships: A Saga of the Viking Age and Rain Dogs
Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty, 4 starsNorthern Ireland, the year is 1987, among the trouble in Ulster where police is routinely under the threat of car bombing, Inspector Duffy is called to investigate the petty theft of a wallet from a Finnish businessman hotel room.
Soon after this incident, a young journalist, who was reporting on the Finn delegation visit, is found dead in the courtyard of Carrickfergus castle. It looks like a suicide, until Duffy discovers that she was secretly working on a story about an international paedophile ring. Duffy is convinced that it’s murder and that the Finns are involved.
I really liked this Irish who-dunnit, or rather how-dunnit, because it is clear fairly on both the who and the why, the mystery is the how. It’s a typical closed room case set in a locked down castle. The pace is a bit slow at the beginning but it picks up quickly and the chase at the end is intense.
This was my first Adrian McKinty novel, despite being the fifth in the series, it was easy to follow (there are some references to a couple of Duffy’s past cases in the book, but that didn’t interfere with the story, which is self-contained).
To be honest, it took me a while to warm up to the character of the inspector. At the beginning it felt a bit of a joker, but I found the puns funny and by the end I liked him a lot (thanks to the author taking the time to explain the circumstances of Duffy personal life at the end of the book)
I enjoyed the throwbacks to the 80s, but it might be an age thing, and could be lost on the young.
I will certainly read more from this series; I plan to go back at the beginning with The Cold Cold Ground. Recommended to lovers of a good mystery.
227. Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley ****Excellent collection of creepy and a bit scary (for the young ones) stories, lovely illustrations. A great read for Halloween.
4.5 stars
228. Heft by Liz Moore, 4 starsThe heft in this book is the burden of loneliness.
Arthur, a morbidly obese ex-professor confined in his home, and Kel, a young man with high hopes of a sport career, live parallel lives without realising they are connected to each other. Both are lonely, they both have known grief, loss and the weight of isolation. Among the fragile secrets that they try to hide, there is hope for a better future, and the courage to reach out to others despite the fear of disappointment.
By revealing the intimate lives and thoughts of the two protagonists, the author made both characters very real; it’s hard for the reader not to connect and care for them. A slow burner but a touching book.
From an interview with Liz Moore at the end of the book:
I have this idea that all of us on earth are carrying around a great weight, and each of our burdens is different but painful. Finding someone—a family member, a romantic love, a friend—who will help us to carry this burden is a great gift, and I think it’s what all of the characters in the book are trying to do.
Two 5 stars books in a row for me.The Long Ships: A Saga of the Viking Age, this has been on my TBR for ages, and I finally got around to reading it, well worth its length:
A classic of the historical fiction genre and a fun read.
This tenth century saga retells the adventures of Orm Tosteson (Red Orm) and his Norse merry men, going a’viking abroad, converting to Christianity and eventually settling down in the border lands with his wife Ylva. The stories are many and varied and the reader will enjoy learning about the ancient ways of the Vikings, the fighting skills, the cunning, the luck and even the wisdom required in settling disputes at the Thing. They are all written in a tongue in cheek fashion.
Relations with the Smalanders continued to be peaceful, and there were no local incidents worth mentioning, apart from the usual murders at feasts and weddings, and a few men burned in their houses as the result of neighbourly disputes. At Gröning, life proceeded tranquilly.
Some things never change, here some of Orm’s advice for marital bliss:
It was a strange peculiarity of Orm’s that he never birched his wife; even when a great anger came over him, he restrained his temper, so that nothing more came of it than an overturned table or a broken door. In time he perceived a curious thing: namely, that all their quarrels always ended in the same way; he had to mend the things he had broken, and the matter about which they had quarreled was always settled the way Ylva wanted it, though she never upturned a table or broke a door, but merely threw an occasional dish-clout in his face or smashed a plate on the floor at his feet. Having discovered this, he thought it unrewarding to have any further quarrels with her, and a whole year would sometimes pass without their harmony being threatened by hard words.
Wonderfully entertaining, informative and historically accurate Viking caper. Highly recommended.
4.5 stars.
Hiroshima, 5 starsThe horrifying testimonies of six civilians in the days after the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, included are an impressive set of pictures, particularly chilling are the before and after photos. A must read.
A Thread of Grace, 1 starI wanted to like this book but I just couldn't get into it. The interesting historical setting of the book, the dangerous crossing of the border between France and Italy after the Italian armistice on 8th September 1943, is what led me to this novel, but it was a disappointment.
The large numbers of characters and story lines made it confusing, especially when different names were used to refer to the same character. Unfortunately, the author doesn’t seem to spend enough time on any of its characters, they do not have real depth, their actions felt overdramatic.
In addition, there were too many errors with the use of the Italian language, manners/customs that left me perplexed and put me off.
This book never really drew me in, it just wasn’t as good as I hoped. DNF at 30%.
A Tapping at my DoorA good thriller featuring a cop serial killer with an avian fetish. DS Cody is a likable enough character, but he fits too perfectly into the mould of troubled hero for me and the ending didn’t entirely satisfy me either. Good but not great. 3 stars.
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
The Lewis Man (other topics)Jungle of Stone: The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya (other topics)
Rain Dogs (other topics)
Rubbernecker (other topics)
Shutter Island (other topics)
More...
Several interesting points about perfectionism. I liked the author’s views on the consequences in the individual’s relationship and society in general, e.g work, parenting and marriage. 3.5 stars
Favourite quotes:
“We now have a workforce full of people who need constant reassurance and can’t take criticism. Not a recipe for success in business, where taking on challenges, showing persistence, and admitting and correcting mistakes are essential.”
A new generation of children is being raised by adults who applaud loudly and reprimand meekly. One reason for doing so is the natural desire of parents and educators to be liked and the assumption that the child will like them more if they are generous with praise and frugal with criticism.
We convince ourselves that there is no limit to how far we can push ourselves, that just as science produces better, faster, more reliable and steady machines, we too can hone our abilities through modifying our nature. Adhering to the unconstrained view of human nature, we attempt to train ourselves to need less downtime—to sleep less, to rest less, to cease less—to do more and stretch ourselves beyond our limits. But, like it or not, there is a limit, and if we continue to violate nature’s demands, to abuse ourselves, we will pay the price—individually and as a society. The rising levels of mental health problems, coupled with improved psychiatric medication, are thrusting us toward a brave new world.
More and more couples engage in public displays of contention. Sanctioned by our culture of reality shows that have brought voyeurism to prime-time television, many couples feel comfortable airing their dirty laundry in public. Strife, when public, adds humiliation to the equation, embarrassing not only the person being chastised but also those who are forced to witness the interaction. In essence, what a relationship needs is basic respect and common courtesy.
One of the most significant benefits of suffering is that it breeds a deep respect for reality, for what is. While the experience of joy connects us to the realm of infinite possibilities, the experience of pain reminds us of our limitations.