sturlington's Planning to Read Books By Women Part 3

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sturlington's Planning to Read Books By Women Part 3

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1sturlington
Editat: oct. 31, 2015, 8:03 am

Welcome to my new thread for fall! This year I am planning to read mostly books written by women, with a focus on speculative fiction via the SFFCat. My original goal was to read 75 books, and since I have already finished 73, I expect to far surpass that goal and have one of my best reading years yet!

I updated my ratings system to simplify and eliminate half stars, with one exception,* as follows:

5.0★ - Mind-blowing. Highly recommended.
4.5★ - Between good and great--still deciding. Highly recommended.*
4.0★ - Powerful. Recommended.
3.0★ - Entertaining but likely forgettable. Take it or leave it.
2.0★ - Poor. Not recommended
1.0★ - Either hated it or abandoned it.

I use the ratings to assess both how much I liked the book and also how significant it was in my overall reading life. Therefore, perfectly good but forgettable books may fall down to the bottom of the scale, while not perfect but very significant books may float to the top.

2sturlington
Editat: des. 15, 2015, 8:35 am

Category 1: Speculative Fiction -- COMPLETE

I am planning to read between 2-5 books per month in the following categories, corresponding more or less to the SFFCat

Historical science fiction (January)
1. Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly (3★)
2. Black Ships by Jo Graham (3★)
3. Territory by Emma Bull (3★)

Classics (February)
1. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (4★)
2. Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany (3★)

Apocalypse/Dystopias (March)
1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (4.5★)*
2. The End is Nigh edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (4★)*
3. The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber (4★)
4. Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories edited by John Joseph Adams (4★)

Fairy tales/Myths (April)
1. The King Must Die by Mary Renault (3★)
2. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemison (3★)
3. Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin (4★)

Girl Power (May)
1. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (4★)*
2. The City, Not Long After by Pat Murphy (4★)
3. Unexpected Stories by Octavia Butler (3★)
4. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (3★)

Time travel/Alternate History (June)
1. Dominion by C.J. Sansom (3★)
2. New Amsterdam by Elizabeth Bear (3★)

Non-humans (July)
1. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer (4★)
2. Invasion of the Body Snatchers by Jack Finney (2★)
3. Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy (3★)

Other Worlds (August)
1. Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie (3★)*
2. Other Worlds Than These edited by John Joseph Adams (3★)
3. The Family Tree by Sheri S. Tepper (4★)

Slipstream/Interstitial (September)
1. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (4★)*
2. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights by Salman Rushdie (3★)
3. After Alice by Gregory Maguire (4★)

Supernatural/Paranormal (October)
1. Rooms by Lauren Oliver (4★)*
2. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (5★; reread)
3. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (5★; reread)
4. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (5★; reread)

Heroes/Quests (November)
1. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (3★)*
2. Breakdown by Katherine Amt Hanna (3★)
3. Going Through the Change by Samantha Bryant (3★)

Award winners (December)
1. Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta (3★)* -- Arthur C. Clarke shortlist
2. Slow River by Nicola Griffith (3★)* -- Nebula and Lambda Literary awards
3. The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers (2★) -- Arthur C. Clarke award and Booker longlist

*Not read in the assigned month.

3sturlington
Editat: des. 26, 2015, 2:12 pm

Category 2: Historical Fiction -- COMPLETE++

1. At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen (2★)
2. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (3★)
3. Euphoria by Lily King (3★)
4. The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara (4★)
5. Let the Dead Lie by Malla Nunn (3★)
6. The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville (3★)
7. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (3★)
8. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (3★)

Category 3: Horror -- COMPLETE++++++++

1. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (3★) - walking audiobook
2. Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells (4★) - walking audiobook
3. Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman (4★)
4. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (4★) - short story
5. Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (4.5★)
6. Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (4★)
7. Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco (4★)
8. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (4★)
9. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (4.5★)
10. American Gothic Tales edited by Joyce Carol Oates (4★)
11. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (4★)
12. The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith (3★)
13. The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter (4★)
14. House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy (3★)

Category 4: Random Reads
This catch-all category includes picks for the RandomCAT that don't fit into other categories, plus random finds in the Little Free Library, Early Reviewer wins, book review assignments, and books off the TBR that don't fit my other categories.

1. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill (4★)
2. The Water that Falls on You From Nowhere by John Chu (3★) - short story
3. The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal (3★) - short story
4. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo (3★) - household maintenance
5. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon (4★) - creativity
6. Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life by Stephanie Staal (3★) - feminism and literature
7. The Girl Next Door by Ruth Rendell (3★)
8. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (4★)- walking audiobook
9. Lists of Note, compiled by Shaun Usher (3★) - Early Reviewers win
10. Finders Keepers by Stephen King (4★)
11. The Burnt Orange Heresy by Charles Willeford (3★)
12. What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton (3★)
13. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp (4★)
14. The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry (3★)
15. The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith (3★)
16. Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit (4★)
17. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash (2★)

4sturlington
Editat: des. 27, 2015, 4:12 pm

Category 5: Kiddie Reads
Books I read with or to my 6-year-old son.

1. Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm (4★) / Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen (4★) -- mostly read
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl (3★)
3. My Dog May Be a Genius by Jack Prelutsky (3★)
4. The Shrinking of Treehorn by Florence Parry Heide (4★)
5. Fudge-a-mania by Judy Blume (4★ - audiobook version)
6. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh by Robert C. O'Brien (4★)
7. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume (4★)
8. Superfudge by Judy Blume (4★)
9. Freckle Juice by Judy Blume (3★)
10. Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary (3★)
11. Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary (4★)
12. Holes by Louis Sachar (4★)
13. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankeweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (4★)

Category 6: Group Reads
This category includes book club picks and any online group reads I may join in.

1. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (5★) -- 2015 category challenge group read
2. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (4★) -- book club pick
3. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (4★) - alas, probably my only completed book for the year-long Austen group read
4. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (4★) - yay! I finished all of Jane Austen
5. Slade House by David Mitchell (4★) -- One Book, One LibraryThing read
6. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (3★) -- book club pick
7. The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins (3★) -- book club pick

NOTES: BingoDOG is complete; see my last thread for that. The Cookbook KIT seems to have gone inactive, so I'm no longer tracking reads in that category.

5sturlington
Editat: des. 27, 2015, 4:13 pm

Where in the World?

Last year, I enjoyed tracking where in the world I was reading at any particular time, so I plan to continue doing that for all my reads in 2015.


visited 15 states (6.66%)
Create your own visited map of The World or Triposo world travel guide for Android

Canada: Station Eleven (actually takes place in both Canada and the US but the key setting is Toronto)
Egypt: Black Ships (actually takes place all over this region but Egypt is the only recognizable modern country)
Europe generally: The Bloody Chamber
Finland: Memory of Water (Finnish author)
France: The Phantom of the Opera
Greece: The King Must Die
India: Interpreter of Maladies (every story either takes place in India or is about Indian American immigrants to the US)
Ireland: The Ghosts of Belfast (mostly Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, I know, but some takes place in Ireland proper and it is about the history of Ireland)
Italy: Lavinia
Japan: A Tale for the Time Being
Micronesia: The People in the Trees
Papua New Guinea: Euphoria
South Africa: Let the Dead Lie
Switzerland: Frankenstein (set in many European countries but this is the primary setting)
United Kingdom: At the Water's Edge (Scotland); A Morbid Taste for Bones (Wales); The Girl Next Door (England); Dominion (England); Mansfield Park (England); After Alice (England); Breakdown (England); Sense and Sensibility (England); Slade House (England); A Christmas Carol (London); The Testament of Jessie Lamb (Manchester)

Where in the US?

Also tracking my American reads by state where they take place.


visited 11 states (22%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or Triposo world travel guide for Android

Arizona: Territory (Tombstone)
California: Bride of the Rat God (Los Angeles); The City Not Long After (San Francisco); Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Marin County); Tea with the Black Dragon (San Francisco); The Sisters Brothers; Frog Music (San Francisco)
Florida: Their Eyes Were Watching God (Everglades); The Burnt Orange Heresy
Kansas: Dark Places
Maine: Fudge-a-mania
Missouri: Sharp Objects
New Jersey: Superfudge
New York: Dept. of Speculation (Brooklyn); Woman on the Edge of Time (New York City); The Age of Innocence (New York City); New Amsterdam (alternate New York); Burnt Offerings (New York state); Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (New York City); Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights (New York City); Rooms (upstate); The Blunderer; From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (NYC); House of Echoes (upstate)
North Carolina: A Land More Kind Than Home; The Last Days of Video
Oregon: Henry Huggins and sequels
Texas: The Last Picture Show; Holes
cross-country road trip: The Price of Salt
unspecified location in New England: The Haunting of Hill House; We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Oceans and islands: Island of Doctor Moreau
Off-planet/Imaginary: Babel-17, The Book of Strange New Things, Herland, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Lady Astronaut of Mars, Annihilation/Authority/Acceptance, Ancillary Sword, Other Worlds Than These, The Family Tree, The Warrior's Apprentice, Slow River, Going Through the Change, Welcome to Night Vale

6sturlington
Editat: oct. 21, 2015, 7:57 am

deleted.

7oliviabaxter04
set. 29, 2015, 11:03 pm

Cool thread! And I thought I read a lot. You blow me out of the water. Great selections.

8sturlington
set. 30, 2015, 8:39 am

>7 oliviabaxter04: Thanks! This challenge has pushed me to read more than ever before, but I still don't measure up to some of the power readers around here.

9sturlington
set. 30, 2015, 8:40 am



Just saw this today. I need another copy of Emma like I need a hole in the head. :-)

10mamzel
set. 30, 2015, 10:34 am

Cool cover!! Almost more like a movie poster than a book cover.
Happy new thread!

11lkernagh
set. 30, 2015, 11:34 pm

YAY! Happy new thread!

12sturlington
Editat: oct. 27, 2015, 2:07 pm


74. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959)
Category: Speculative fiction | Rating: Terrific (5★)
SFFCat: Supernatural & Paranormal (October)

Third reading. Still one of my favorite books of all time. I love that it can still scare the pants off me and that I find something new in it each time I read it.

For Halloween, here is a list of my top 5 scariest books:
1. The Shining
2. The Haunting of Hill House
3. Heart-Shaped Box
4. The War of the Worlds
5. World War Z

Honorable mentions: IT, The Stand, The Ruins, The Passage and Authority

13DeltaQueen50
oct. 1, 2015, 11:28 pm

>9 sturlington: What a gorgeous cover! Emma is my least favorite Jane Austen but that cover could certainly tempt me.

I like your list of top 5 scariest books - I've read them all and each of them has parts that scared me silly.

14-Eva-
oct. 2, 2015, 2:10 pm

Happy new thread!

>9 sturlington:
I crave! :)

15leslie.98
oct. 2, 2015, 7:23 pm

Happy new thread! Love the book cover for Emma :)

16mathgirl40
oct. 2, 2015, 8:30 pm

>9 sturlington: What a fantastic cover! Happy new thread.

17oliviabaxter04
oct. 2, 2015, 9:44 pm

Wow. I really do love that cover for Emma. It is a favorite of mine. :-)

18sturlington
Editat: oct. 27, 2015, 2:06 pm


75. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (2011)
Category: Historical Fiction | Rating: Entertaining (3★)

The notorious hired killers, the Sisters brothers, set out on one last job to track down and kill a gold miner and inventor at the height of the California Gold Rush.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The narrator, Eli Sisters, has a distinctive voice, and the dialogue between him and his brother is really snappy, almost cinematic. Their adventures getting from the Oregon territory to California and book are infused with a lot of dark humor. I wouldn't say there was much substance to this story, but it sure was entertaining.

Book 75! A milestone. This has been my best reading year since I started keeping track.

19rabbitprincess
oct. 7, 2015, 5:10 pm

>18 sturlington: And the cover is so eye-catching! deWitt's most recent novel Undermajordomo Minor looks like it has the same (or similar) illustrator/designer.

20sturlington
oct. 7, 2015, 5:35 pm

>19 rabbitprincess: I do love that cover. I wouldn't mind hanging it on my wall. I could see this as a Coen brothers movie but they have already done a western.

21rabbitprincess
oct. 7, 2015, 9:15 pm

Very true! There is a movie version in the works though: French director Jacques Audiard will be adapting it, with John C. Reilly starring: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/aug/25/jacques-audiard-to-adapt-the-sister-...

22sturlington
oct. 8, 2015, 6:46 am

>21 rabbitprincess: Oh, I can definitely see Reilly as Eli!

23sturlington
Editat: oct. 27, 2015, 2:07 pm


76. Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary (1952)
Category: Kiddie Reads | Rating: Good (4★)

Henry Huggins' misadventures with his dog Ribsy and his neighbor Beezus continue.

This is the second in the Henry Huggins series. My son is really enjoying these books. This one was pretty funny; we loved Ribsy collecting all the newspapers in the neighborhood and putting them on the porch. Cleary's clear writing is fun to read aloud as well, but as my son wants to continue with the series, I am encouraging him to read them independently, as there seem to be about a million of them and I'd like to read something else for a change.

24lkernagh
oct. 9, 2015, 1:31 pm

Congrats on having such a great reading year!

25-Eva-
oct. 10, 2015, 10:34 pm

>21 rabbitprincess:
Ooh, have to get the book read before that one's done!

26sturlington
Editat: oct. 27, 2015, 2:07 pm


77. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818)
Category: Speculative Fiction | Rating: Terrific (5★)
SFFCat: Supernatural and Paranormal (October)

This was a reread for book group and remains a 5-star read for me. The cover is of my Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, which I love.

27leslie.98
Editat: oct. 12, 2015, 12:29 pm

>26 sturlington: Great choice of reading for October :) Interesting cover for your edition, it looks almost like it is the cover of a graphic novel edition! I first read this by listening to the audiobook, whose cover is clearly from the classic film:



I love the movie but the book is better!

28sturlington
oct. 12, 2015, 12:39 pm

>27 leslie.98: It is from a series by penguin with covers by comics artists! I am a sucker for these beautiful books.

29sturlington
Editat: oct. 27, 2015, 2:07 pm


78. Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit (2014)
Category: Random Reads | Rating: Good (4★)

A short collection of essays provides fertile ground for growing new ideas.

When I first started reading Solnit's essays, I felt angry. That's okay; I'm used to feeling angry. What I liked about this collection is that she goes beyond anger, which can lead all too easily to feelings of despair and hopelessness, and she does provide hope for a brighter future, as well as an impetus that we all keep doing our small part because everyone's work toward equality is important. Many reviewers have commented on "Woolf's Darkness" as an outlier piece in this collection, but it was the essay I most highlighted, because it talks about how creative work gets done and ties that into the limitations placed on women, and also because it introduces the idea that the future is dark. We cannot know what will happen in the future or how our actions now might make a difference. We are all spinners in a web, and how those threads come together, we just don't know, but those threads are all necessary, so we cannot stop our work, whatever it may be. We all make a difference.

Solnit says in this essay:
"To me, the grounds for hope are simply that we don't know what will happen next, and that the unlikely and the unimaginable transpire quite regularly. And that the unofficial history of the world shows that dedicated individuals and popular movements can shape history and have, though how and when we might win and how long it takes is not predictable."

"Despair is a form of certainty, certainty that the future will be a lot like the present or will decline from it; despair is a confident memory of the future, in Gonzalez's resonant phrase. Optimism is similarly confident about what will happen. Both are grounds for not acting. Hope can be the knowledge that we don't have that memory and that reality doesn't necessarily match our plans..."


While this essay spoke volumes to me, my favorite essay was "Grandmother Spider," which begins by showing how women have been erased from family lines and thus from history, and ends by honoring the work of women, all of it, and how it taken together weaves an intricate and beautiful web:

"Every woman who appears wrestles with the forces that would have her disappear. She struggles with the forces that would tell her story for her, or write her out of the story, the genealogy, the rights of man, the rule of law. The ability to tell your own story, in words or images, is already a victory, already a revolt."


An inspiring collection for all people.

30sturlington
Editat: oct. 27, 2015, 2:07 pm


79. The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (1986)
Category: Speculative fiction | Rating: Entertaining (3★)
SFFCat: Off on a Quest (November)

Young Miles Vorkosigan, suffering from a crippling bone affliction and freshly rejected from military service, sets off on an adventure in which he steals a spaceship, starts an army of mercenaries, captures a fleet of ships, and joins in a war between distant planets. All without really meaning to.

Great fun. Miles is a wonderful character. I'm surprised no one has turned this into a movie.

A note about series: I don't normally read them. I don't like to commit to reading a large amount by any one author (except my favorite authors). Since I'm a completist, with many series, once I start, I feel like I have to barrel through to the end. Even though this is not the first book in the very long Vorkosigan series, I read in many reviews that it was a good place to start. I did not feel at all lost or like I was missing something, and I also didn't feel a compulsion to continue with the series. I now know that Bujold's books are good for light popcorn reads when I need one, but I don't need to complete the series to feel satisfied.

31RidgewayGirl
oct. 20, 2015, 2:10 pm

I do like Rebecca Solnit's site. If I run into her book, I will buy it.

32sturlington
oct. 30, 2015, 9:50 am

I have simplified my ratings system (see >1 sturlington:) to get rid of half stars, with one exception. In my new system, 3★ means "entertaining, but likely forgettable," but not bad. I emphasize this because a lot of people think 3 stars is a bad rating or only just average. For me it means I liked the book while I was reading it but it didn't have a huge impact on me and I likely will not revisit it. If it still sounds interesting to you, you should pick it up and not take the rating as a warning to stay away.

Poor books are rated 2 stars and abysmal or abandoned books are rated 1 star now.

33LittleTaiko
oct. 30, 2015, 8:50 pm

Agree with your assessment of 3 stars - it means a decent book but not something great.

34dudes22
oct. 31, 2015, 6:49 am

That's kind of how I feel about 3.5 stars. For example, even though I read and follow some cozy mysteries, they'll almost never be higher than 3.5. Good for what they are if you read them.

35sturlington
nov. 2, 2015, 1:57 pm

>34 dudes22: I've stopped using half stars except for books that I'm deciding whether to rate 4 or 5 stars, so they're sitting at 4.5 temporarily. This is mostly just to make things simpler on me. But my new 3 stars is like your 3.5 rating and would have been 3.5 in my old system.

36sturlington
Editat: nov. 2, 2015, 3:39 pm

Cooking Update

Well, it's been a while, and many of you probably forget that I'm doing a family cooking challenge where we cook one dish from each of the 50 states. I took a bit of a hiatus from it, but last night I got back in the swing of things with cooking a dish from New Hampshire, which is the 15th state we've visited culinarily. I wanted to take advantage of apple season, and New England is known for its apples, so I made Skillet Apple Crisp. Most good cookbooks will have a crisp recipe. I got mine from The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. Like all their recipes, it was a bit fiddly but the results were excellent. The crisp combined pecans, oats, brown sugar, butter, and flour, and the recipe called for pouring a little apple cider over the apples before baking, which resulted in a nice syrup. Everyone liked--it was particularly good topped with vanilla ice cream or plain Greek yogurt, for the health conscious.

Next up: I am planning to make Chicago-style deep dish pizza.

37leslie.98
nov. 2, 2015, 3:16 pm

>36 sturlington: sounds yummy!

38dudes22
nov. 2, 2015, 5:27 pm

>36 sturlington: - I have a lot of recipes I make that come from Cook's Illustrated. Some are a little fiddly, as you say, but worth the effort. I think I just saw them make that crisp on their PBS show recently.

39-Eva-
nov. 2, 2015, 11:01 pm

>36 sturlington:
No cinnamon? I've been looking for a good recipe without cinnamon (I don't like that flavor at all!).

40VivienneR
nov. 3, 2015, 2:05 am

>36 sturlington: Sounds like a delicious experiment!

>39 -Eva-: I don't like cinnamon either. Instead, I put 4 or 5 whole cloves in apple pie, although you have to warn visitors to watch for them.

41sturlington
nov. 3, 2015, 6:46 am

>38 dudes22: Sometimes I don't feel like doing the extra steps called for in their recipes, but those little extras often make a big difference. That cookbook is one of my favorites because I can usually count on the recipes turning out well.

>39 -Eva-: Yes, it had cinnamon but I failed to mention it.

>40 VivienneR: Thanks, I don't usually make desserts but crisp is so easy, I can add it to my repertoire.

42-Eva-
nov. 3, 2015, 12:34 pm

>41 sturlington:
Oh well, the search continues... :) Thanks!

43sturlington
nov. 4, 2015, 9:16 am


80. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (2014)
Category: Historical fiction | Rating: Entertaining (3★)

In 1876 San Francisco, a heat wave and a smallpox epidemic means tempers are frayed. Jenny Bonnet, a frog hunter notorious for wearing men's clothing, collides on her high-rider bicycle with Blanche Beunon, a dancer in a strip club and a prostitute. This chance encounter sparks an unlikely friendship that is cut short a month later, when Jenny is gunned down in front of Blanche. Now Blanche is destitute and scrambling to find her baby while trying to figure out who killed Jenny.

This is an immersive novel for those readers who enjoy plunging into a different time and place. Donoghue brings San Francisco to life with a wealth of details about everyday life in this chaotic city. Her characters are real historical figures, and this is a real unsolved mystery; Donoghue's solution may be somewhat convoluted, but it does work. The protagonist, Blanche, is a difficult person to sympathize with, a mother who first abandons her baby and then can't live without him, a prostitute who lets herself be taken advantage of by her kept man and his best friend. Jenny is a much more engaging character, but unfortunately is not in the book much, since her murder is the central point of the plot. Donoghue switches back and forth between the time leading up to the murder and the time after it, which can be awkward and confusing, and her strange choice of present tense doesn't help (a book set in the past should use past tense, in my opinion). Overall, though, this is an engaging read, showcasing Donoghue's clear talent for historical research.

44sturlington
Editat: nov. 4, 2015, 9:19 am


81. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (1962)
Category: Speculative fiction | Rating: Excellent (5★) -- this was a reread
SFFCat: Supernatural and Paranormal (October)

The novel, narrated by 18-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, tells the story of the Blackwood family who live in a large house on large grounds, in isolation from the nearby village.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a short, tight novel, not a word of its 130 pages wasted. It was Jackson’s final novel, and many believe that it was her masterpiece. While it echoes those old stories we know by heart, this is a story we’ve never heard before, at least not told in this way.

Read my full review. Note: spoilers.

45sturlington
Editat: nov. 19, 2015, 2:19 pm


82. Breakdown: A Love Story by Katherine Amt Hanna (2011)
Category: Speculative fiction | Rating: Entertaining (3★)
SFFCat: Off on a Quest (November)

Civilization breaks down after a devastating plague, and former musician Chris Price is making his way home to reunite with his family in Bath, England.

This is a love story, as the subtitle indicates, and I am not generally a fan of romance. It's a quiet book, a different take on the post-apocalyptic story with more rebuilding and less violence. It's competently done, but it doesn't shine. The writing likes rhythm, and the characters seem to blur together.

46sturlington
nov. 4, 2015, 9:24 am

October Round-up

I had a good reading month. I finished 8 books, including 3 for SFFCat (all rereads), 2 for the HistoryCAT, and 1 children's book. My rereads all retained their 5-star ratings: The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I also enjoyed Rebecca Solnit's collection of feminist essays, Men Explain Things to Me. All my other reads got three stars, a decent rating but not terribly impactful. I also abandoned one book, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova--too long and not immersive for me.

47sturlington
nov. 4, 2015, 9:27 am

Cooking Update

I also made one more stop on our culinary tour of the United States last night. We went to Chicago, Illinois, for deep-dish pizza. I used the recipe from a terrific cookbook I just recently acquired and have been cooking out of a lot: Pizza Dough. It has a really good pizza dough recipe that you can make in 5 minutes and let rise in under an hour, then use to make pizzas plus all sorts of other things: tartlets, bread, even desserts. This cookbook has helped me make my own bread a lot more often, at least once a week, since the dough is so easy and so good.

We all liked the deep-dish pizza, which I cooked in a cast-iron skillet. It was an easy weeknight dinner with a salad. However, I am afraid it was entirely authentic. There is a more authentic recipe in my Cook's Illustrated Cookbook, which takes more time, but I might try to make it too when I have an afternoon available.

48rabbitprincess
nov. 4, 2015, 9:52 pm

Mmmmmm deep-dish pizza sounds yummy! :)

49sturlington
Editat: nov. 19, 2015, 2:16 pm


83. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (1811)
Category: Group Reads | Rating: Very good (4★)

Wonderful sisters, another terrific heroine, and the least engaging of all Austen's heroes. This was my last full-length Austen novel to complete, and I finished it convinced that Austen never wrote a bad book. I was prepared not to love this one, having seen the movie, but Elinor won me over, although I still cannot fathom for the life of me what she finds attractive about Edward Ferrars! I listened to the audiobook (Kindle WhisperSync) and the narrator was terrific.

50sturlington
nov. 19, 2015, 2:16 pm


84. Slade House by David Mitchell (2015)
Category: Group reads | Rating: Very good (4★)

Every nine years on the last Saturday in October, a mysterious iron door appears in the wall of Slade Alley. If you open it--and you should hope you don't--you'll find yourself in an impossible garden looking at the back of Slade House at a place where it absolutely cannot be. And if you venture further in, you'll soon realize that Slade House is not at all what it seems.

This is a short book, structured like a set of Chinese nesting boxes. Each story, set nine years apart, repeats and builds on the previous one. Mitchell has made an agreeably creepy contribution to the haunted house genre with Slade House, which began as a story told in a series of tweets. There are quite a lot of nice touches that startle and make us feel uneasy, the portraits on the walls being one of my favorite. Even more unsettling is how Mitchell plays with reality, keeping both his characters and us readers feeling off kilter, unable to trust what we are reading. I raced through the first three sections, wanting to know what came next. And here is where I feel Mitchell may have let us down somewhat. The fourth section, although it keeps up the pattern, explains perhaps too much what is going on in Slade House, at least for this reader, who prefers her ghost stories to remain uncomfortably ambiguous. And if you have already read The Bone Clocks, you will know as soon as the final section starts how things are going to go down. (I think Slade House would be more enjoyable if you read it before The Bone Clocks.) Uber-fans of the Horologists may not mind that, but I was wishing Mitchell had taken us somewhere less expected, instead of revisiting old territory. Despite these disappointments, Mitchell's writing is as good as ever, and fans of haunted house stories probably should not miss this one.

51sturlington
Editat: nov. 19, 2015, 2:26 pm


85. Holes by Louis Sachar (1998)
Category: Kiddie reads | Rating: Very good (4★)

Stanley Yelnats is arrested for a crime he did not commit and is sent to a prison in the Texas desert where he must dig a hole every day--but what is the Warden looking for?

I read this aloud to my son, and we both enjoyed it. I personally had to keep myself from racing ahead and finishing the darn thing to find out what happens! I think Holes just goes to show that writing a really good children's book is even harder than writing for adults. This book has a rich back story, it flips back and forth in time, it's funny, it's got a mystery, it's a buddy book, it's an adventure, we really care about the characters, there is serious danger that must be overcome, and everything is tied together satisfactorily at the end. In other words, it has to do everything that adult books do, but at a level that kids can relate to and enjoy. I read a lot of humdrum kids' books, so it's nice to come across one that hearkens back to the great stories I remember from my own childhood.

52sturlington
nov. 19, 2015, 2:37 pm


86. Slow River by Nicola Griffith (1995)
Category: Speculative Fiction | Rating: Entertaining (3★)
SFFCat: Under the Influence (December)

Lore is the privileged daughter of a wealthy family, but her life changes when she is kidnapped and her family won't pay the ransom. After escaping her kidnappers, Lore falls in with Spanner, who gets her involved in more and more illicit activities. Lore finally breaks away from Spanner and sets out to build a new identity through a job at a wastewater treatment plant and a burgeoning romance. The story is revealed through three separate intertwined storylines going through the three phases of Lore's life: up to and including the kidnapping; with Spanner; and after Spanner. This is a slow-moving, character-driven story depicting a near-future world where the privileged few are even more separated from everyone else, who are often the victims of their capriciousness. Although romance is an integral part of the plot, this doesn't feel like a book about lesbians; rather, Lore just happens to be a lesbian, and having relationships is part of her development as a person. I mostly enjoyed the story but I wasn't blown away, and I found the big reveal about the abuse that happened in Lore's childhood to be somewhat unconvincing as depicted, which tainted the overall reading experience for me.

53mamzel
nov. 19, 2015, 4:39 pm

>51 sturlington: I read Holes when my daughter was in 5th grade. I can remember finding it on the book shelf in her classroom. I loved this book and recommend it to kids all the time. If you get a chance to watch the movie, it would be worth it. Sigourney Weaver plays the warden ("Excuse me?"), Jon Voigt is Mr. Sir, Dule Hill plays Sam and Shia LaBeouf plays Stanley. It has a wonderful blues sound track.

54sturlington
nov. 19, 2015, 4:45 pm

>53 mamzel: Thanks, it is available on Netflix so we'll definitely watch it next family movie night!

55paruline
nov. 20, 2015, 10:35 am

>51 sturlington: my son is eleven and I think he would enjoy it, even though he's reading more mediaval fantasies right now *runs off to check the library's catalogue*

56-Eva-
nov. 23, 2015, 10:18 pm

>50 sturlington:
I think Slade House would be more enjoyable if you read it before The Bone Clocks
That's good news for me - I haven't read The Bone Clocks yet and was wondering if Slade House would have been different if I had.

57sturlington
Editat: nov. 24, 2015, 6:58 am

>56 -Eva-: I see you also had issues with the last section. I did think it was a bit pat. I'll be interested to see what you think of Bone Clocks not going in blind. It's also told in sections from different points of view. I think my favorite was the writer Crispin Hershey's.

58-Eva-
nov. 24, 2015, 10:34 am

>57 sturlington:
The end was much too easy, unfortunately. Looking forward even more to The Bone Clocks now, though!

59RidgewayGirl
nov. 24, 2015, 2:14 pm

I just finished Slade House myself and I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said in your review.

Also, the Tournament of Books is only a few months away (four is a few, right?) and I'm already trying to figure out what books will be on the list.

60sturlington
Editat: des. 3, 2015, 1:53 pm

I'm getting a bit tired of writing full reviews, so I'm going to switch to a more journal-like, informal approach. It's always good to shake things up a bit. Here are my most recent reads.



Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor: I have never heard the podcast; I just bought this book based on hearing an interview with the authors on NPR and then seeing it in the bookstore. Is it possible to have too much plot? I really enjoyed the parts about the imaginary town of Night Vale itself and "the voice of Night Vale" sections, which are probably most similar to the podcast. Night Vale is a delightfully weird place, and I liked spending time there. The plot got too convoluted toward the end, though, and didn't really hold my attention. I thought there was a touch of trying too hard. The standout in my memory is a bizarre and scary tour through the local library. Weak 4★. Category: Horror (humorous)



Going Through the Change by Samantha Bryant: Samantha is a friend of mine; this is her first published book. It is about four menopausal women who gain superpowers, a nice twist on the usual superhero fantasy. The relationships among the women are well done, and there is a plausible range of characters and character traits. This is the first in a planned trilogy. 3★--entertaining and light. Category: Speculative Fiction (Heroes month)

61sturlington
Editat: des. 7, 2015, 9:55 am


From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg: My son and I both enjoyed reading this; I was revisiting a childhood favorite. Even after all these years, I vividly remembered the scene where they got money out of the fountain. Running away and hiding out in a museum always sounded like the perfect adventure. 4★ Category: Kiddie reads

62dudes22
des. 7, 2015, 4:34 pm

>61 sturlington: - about what age would this be for? I'm still looking for ideas for Christmas. I may even read it myself.

63sturlington
des. 7, 2015, 7:53 pm

My son is 7. I read it aloud to him. I'd say 8-11 and you would also probably enjoy it!

64dudes22
des. 8, 2015, 5:51 am

Thanks

65sturlington
des. 8, 2015, 11:04 am

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens: So my animosity toward all things Dickens continues. It's not that I don't like this story. Who could dislike it, having seen it umpteen-million times since childhood and knowing that it's basically responsible for Christmas as we know it today? But really, Dickens is so sentimental and so melodramatic. Every character stands for something but isn't really a person. Tiny Tim--need I say more? I read this, and fairly quickly too, and I finished it, which I haven't done with a Dickens work since I was forced to read Hard Times in college. But yet again, I am reminded that Dickens' style and subject matter is the antithesis of what I like to read. I should honestly stop trying, but his belovedness confounds me. Now you'll be saying that I'm the Scrooge! Category: group reads (read for book club). 3★

66nancyewhite
des. 8, 2015, 1:26 pm

>61 sturlington:. I LOVED that book as a child. I also vividly remember them getting money from the fountain. That and lifting their feet in the bathroom stall to prevent themselves from being seen.

I'm going to buy it for my 10 year old son for Christmas. I'm interested in his response given the changes in technology and monitoring via video etc. Did your son comment on that at all?

67sturlington
des. 8, 2015, 1:58 pm

>66 nancyewhite: No, I don't think that occurred to him or to me. I'd be interested to hear how your son likes it.

68sturlington
Editat: des. 9, 2015, 8:13 am


The Blunderer by Patricia Highsmith: Highsmith had a reputation for misanthropy, which she does nothing to dispel with this thriller. First, let's take a look at the women characters, such as they are. Two of them are shrill, nagging wives who both die violent deaths, and it seems they deserved them. The last is pretty much a non-character, who falls in love with Walter (the most non-romantic person imaginable) without any provocation whatsoever and spends the rest of the novel not doing much.

But Highsmith is obviously more interested in her men than her women, specifically three men. The first is Walter, the titular blunderer, who when his wife supposedly commits suicide by jumping off a cliff during a rest stop on a bus trip, he does pretty much everything he can to make himself look guilty of murder. Walter has none of the misplaced charisma of Highsmith's well-known Ripley character (The Talented Mr. Ripley). He is milquetoast, indecisive with his feelings, slow on the uptake, "nothing but a pair of eyes without an identity behind them." After reading a news story, Walter becomes obsessed with a man named Kimmel, who really did murder his wife at a bus stop (as revealed in the first chapter). Kimmel is in every way repulsive, who considers himself so much above the rest of humankind that he can get away with murder; he thinks of himself as "powerful and impregnable as a myth." Highsmith takes care to mention Kimmel's physical appearance at every opportunity, his fatness, his lack of grace and bad eyesight, his repulsive thick lips like a heart.

It takes a lot to get the reader to feel even a modicum of sympathy for such a man, who did, after all, brutally strangle his wife without any sense of remorse whatsoever. However, when Corby, Highsmith's third man, comes into the book, she almost manages to do so. Corby is the police detective obsessed with pinning both deaths on the husbands, by any means necessary. While Walter is stupid and Kimmel is arrogant, Corby comes across as nothing less than evil, which is all the more shocking because he represents justice.

Highsmith turns our expectations upside down and has us rooting for Kimmel and Walter to triumph over Corby. She is an expert manipulator, and it shows in this novel, but after finishing it, I felt icky, contaminated. These are not people I'd care to know, and Highsmith offers no alternatives, not even a hint of one. The world is full of people like these, she seems to be saying; take a close look at anyone and you'll find something to disgust you. So while The Blunderer is a well-written novel and an effective piece of horror, it is not a book I can say that I liked. Category: Horror 3★

69dudes22
des. 10, 2015, 6:42 am

>61 sturlington: - In the end, I decided against this for my great-nephew. His father said he's still not a big reader and, in glancing thru the book at the bookstore, I thought it might be a little bit too much (he's only just 8). So I went for a sports-oriented book, hoping it will keep his interest. But I'll keep it in mind for another year ( or relative) and may read it myself for my children/YA category next year.

70sturlington
des. 10, 2015, 6:45 am

You probably made the right call if he's not a big reader. It's kind of a reader's book. Captain Underpants is also usually a safe bet for that age group.

71dudes22
des. 10, 2015, 7:06 am

There was a series with a baseball theme and I went with one of those. I had forgotten about Captain Underpants. Although there is also a Stinko series that probably appeals to boys.

72nancyewhite
des. 11, 2015, 12:39 pm

If he is more interested in non-fiction, my son likes the 'I Survived' series (I Survived the Battle of Gettysburg; I Survived the Tornado of 2007 etc.) and the 'Who Was' series (Who Was Mozart; Who Was John Lennon etc.). I know sometimes boys prefer real-life stuff.

73mathgirl40
des. 13, 2015, 6:56 pm

>50 sturlington: Slade House is on my wishlist. I loved The Bone Clocks and I like haunted house stories too, so this one sounds really good.

74sturlington
des. 15, 2015, 8:09 am


The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter: Carter's reworked fairy tales revolve around the theme of young women (and sometimes men) crossing the threshold into adulthood, generally through sexual experiences. While each story in this short collection is a retelling of a well-known fairy tale, Carter actually incorporates allusions to many folktales and children's stories into each one. It would be fun to read through carefully and pick out all the references. Using children's literature in this way contrasts with the lush sexual imagery and the frequently earthy language (Carter doesn't shy away from having her characters fart and piss and show their genitals). The stories are set in a fantasy version of Europe, one with isolated castles and dense, wolf-filled forests but with a foot in the modern world. Her mostly female characters usually begin as fairy tale tropes--girls who are not in control of their own lives but who are sold or taken by men--but these girls soon discover their own power and use that to regain control over their lives. This transformation typically begins with a disrobing, a stripping away of all the expectations and assumptions of what it means to be a girl, so each women can define herself for herself. Carter explores different ways this can happen, usually by subverting the original tale in some way: Red Riding Hood seduces the wolf; Beauty reveals her inner Beast. Carter's style is lush and overflowing with sometimes overwhelming, frequently horrific imagery. This was a rereading for me, and I absolutely loved this kind of stuff as a young adult, but it's less affecting now that I'm in cynical middle age. However, this is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in feminist literature or who enjoys grown-up retellings of fairy tales. Category: Horror (modern gothic). 4★

75sturlington
Editat: des. 22, 2015, 2:28 pm


The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers: I would probably have categorized this book as young adult if it were not shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award. I am not sure, though, that it deserved those accolades.

The book is set in near future England and is a counterpoint to The Children of Men by P.D. James. In this scenario, every woman who gets pregnant dies of a terrible bio-engineered disease. Jessie, the teenage protagonist, may be a witness to the end of the human race, as procreation basically comes to a halt. Jessie tells the story in a sort of diary; when the book opens, she is being held prisoner by an unknown person for an unknown reason who has asked her to write her "testament."

Society is unraveling, although not as drastically as in The Children of Men. For me, this was the most unbelievable aspect of the story. (Some spoilers ahead.) Gender relations seem to completely break down when the possibility of reproduction is removed. Young men eschew relationships to form gangs, turn homosexual, and spit on women. Huh? This development seems to completely discount the strong emotional bonds that can form between men and women by asserting that the only reason for the sexes to relate to one another is to produce offspring. I think this is trying to be a feminist novel--women move in together and form protest groups--but they come across as irrational and man-hating. I just didn't think this aspect of the book was believable or appropriately complex, which somewhat spoiled the rest of the story for me.

Jessie, as her name implies, come to think of herself as a sacrifice, which I also found problematic. However, this was more believable to me, in the context of the character. I agreed with pretty much every other character that her sacrifice was unnecessary and ill-conceived, but it seemed like something that a teen in the throes of severe angst would do. However, I'm not sure that this was the perspective the author wanted me to take. I think we are supposed to think of Jessie as heroic, maybe even Christ-like (again, the name). I won't even get into the fact that a rudimentary examination of the underlying science makes the whole scheme untenable.

I'm not totally panning this book. The writing is decent, Jessie's character is well developed, and the conceit is intriguing. However, I do think we've seen this kind of thing done before, and done much better. I just get the sense that the author wrote this without truly thinking it through, or without building in the layers of complexity necessary to keep the overarching theme from seeming muddled and without real impact. Category: Speculative fiction (award winners) 2★

76lkernagh
des. 21, 2015, 6:47 am

Getting caught up and enjoyed your string of reviews. I remember reading The Bloody Chamber 1-2 years ago. Carter really has a way with giving old fairy tales a new twist, I will say that.

77sturlington
Editat: des. 22, 2015, 2:28 pm


A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash: This story begins with two brothers seeing things through windows that they should not, and one of them, a mute, then mysteriously dies during a service at a snake-handling church. It's described on the cover as Cormac McCarthy rewriting Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, but honestly, the only thing Wiley Cash has in common with those two other authors is that he's from the South. He doesn't have Lee's depth of insight nor McCarthy's breadth of worldview. In fact, this novel is barely a short story, stretched out with too much back story. It's told from the points of view of three characters who are all peripheral to the main events, a frustrating choice because they aren't close enough to the central plot to give readers a real sense of what's happening and they keep interrupting the main flow to reminisce, which I found confusing in keeping current events straight (the main story also takes place in the past, by the way). The most interesting character is Carson Chambliss, pastor of the aforementioned church, a truly threatening guy who was the only person keeping me reading but who barely appeared on page, certainly not enough to get to know him, to really feel his menace, or to understand the hold he had over the boys' mother, Julie. Another troublesome character, Julie seems to do only what the plot requires of her, often at odds with her character as established, and has no real personality of her own. Yet if it weren't for Julie's and Chambliss's relationship, none of the other events would have followed--it seems crucial that we understand them, yet we are kept tantalizingly distant. Cash is a promising writer, and this book has been incredibly lauded, which probably explains my disappointment with it. But this story never gets a chance to take root and thus can't favorably be compared to the greats of Southern literature. Category: Random Reads/RandomCAT (Home for the Holidays) 2★

78dudes22
des. 23, 2015, 8:28 am

I liked the cover and title and even the first sentence of your review. But, based on the rest, I think I'll give it a pass.

79sturlington
des. 23, 2015, 2:01 pm

>78 dudes22: The premise and title got me too, but as you know, didn't live up to its promise, at least not for me.

80sturlington
des. 26, 2015, 9:28 am

I hope everyone had a great holiday, however you choose to celebrate it (or not). For the first time in recent memory, I don't think I got enough books. So I guess I'll have to give myself a new year's gift.

This year, I'm on track to have read 95-96 books, which makes 2015 probably my best reading year ever, certainly since I've been keeping track of what I read.

Here are my top five reads of the year (I don't count rereads):

Station Eleven
Their Eyes Were Watching God
The Age of Innocence
A Tale for the Time Being
Annihilation

Happy New Year!

81rabbitprincess
des. 26, 2015, 11:09 am

Very glad to hear that Station Eleven was one of your top reads for the year; I'm inching my way up the holds list at the library.

82sturlington
Editat: des. 26, 2015, 2:14 pm


House of Echoes by Brendan Duffy: A young family moves into a rambling, isolated house with the intentions of fixing it up as an inn but immediately encounter all kinds of weirdnesses. Duffy basically stuffs every possible element of gothic horror into this one. Ramshackle old house with a history -- check. Creepy woods hiding someone (or something?) who watches -- check. Small village filled with ornery, suspicious villagers -- check. Old chapel with angel statue AND morbid art -- check. Naive family in over their heads -- check. Winter storm -- check. Catholic priest -- check. Despite that, this story grabbed me and kept me reading. A fun potboiler, good for a vacation read, just don't take it too seriously. Category: Horror (modern gothic). 3★

83dudes22
des. 26, 2015, 2:49 pm

I'm not a horror reader, but your list did have everything I think of when horror stories are mentioned. Made me smile and chuckle.

84sturlington
des. 27, 2015, 4:14 pm


The Last Days of Video by Jeremy Hawkins: Set in a fictionalized version of the town I've lived in or near for pretty much all my life, this debut novel is about a dying video store in 2007 that is a fictionalized version of the video store where I used to rent all my movies. It's a light, humorous story, entertaining if a bit rough around the edges. The characters are the book's strength; the plot seems a little rambling, but pulls it together by the end. I could definitely see this as a movie, shades of High Fidelity, starring Jack Black maybe. Category: Random Reads/RandomCAT (Jan 2016). 3★

85-Eva-
des. 27, 2015, 4:54 pm

"I don't think I got enough books"
I never get any books at all. :( Everyone seems to figure I'm already well covered in that area. :)

86sturlington
des. 27, 2015, 4:59 pm

>85 -Eva-: Books, tea and wine are about all I want in terms of gifts these days. I got a lot of kitchen towels this year, for some reason. I bought myself a few books off my own wishlist. Merry Christmas to me!

87VivienneR
des. 27, 2015, 5:01 pm

>86 sturlington: I bought myself a few books off my own wishlist. Merry Christmas to me!

In my opinion, that's the best way to get book gifts. I was my own Santa too. Merry Christmas!

88sturlington
des. 30, 2015, 10:59 am

Last book of the year, probably, was an Early Reviewers win that I ended up just skimming because I didn't find it worth reading: The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century. Not what I was expecting. If you're interested, you can read my tepid review on the book page.

89sturlington
Editat: des. 30, 2015, 11:37 am

Books I received or got myself for Christmas...

First, the pretty books. I am a sucker for these Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions. I have all of Jane Austen now, I think. These two covers were painted by Audrey Niffenegger. And one can never have too many copies of Alice, I find. The Elizabeth David is from New York Review of Books' line.



Next, new books I intend to read. Please join me in 2016!



90RidgewayGirl
des. 30, 2015, 3:54 pm

Both Negotiating with the Dead and The Expendable Man are on my list of books I hope to get to next year. See you in 2016!

91VivienneR
des. 31, 2015, 5:19 pm

92sturlington
des. 31, 2015, 5:56 pm

Aww, thank you!

93-Eva-
des. 31, 2015, 7:06 pm

>89 sturlington:
Great loot!

94sturlington
gen. 1, 2016, 9:48 am

I had a great reading year. I read 96 books for pleasure and several more for professional book reviews. More than half of these books were written by women. Maybe next year I can get that number up to 75%. I read at least two books every month for the SFFCat, often 3 or 4, and more than filled out my other categories. I traveled through books to a few exotic places, including Finland, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Micronesia, although most of my reads are still British and American. Next year I hope to visit even more diverse settings.

Happy new year everyone!

95rabbitprincess
gen. 1, 2016, 10:53 am

That does sound like a great reading year. Congrats on the professional book reviews and I hope you have another great reading year in 2016!

96lkernagh
gen. 1, 2016, 5:10 pm

Sounds like you had a great reading year!

97paruline
gen. 2, 2016, 6:50 pm

Here's to many more great reading years!

98nancyewhite
gen. 4, 2016, 2:45 pm

In 2016 I finished Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King - many stories were great, a few were clunkers, I skipped the poetry and his introductions to each story were a blast.

I read Ms. Marvel Volume 3 yesterday. I'm not a superhero or comic book fan in general, but I love this series.

And, last night I began Slade House by David Mitchell. I'm excited about it.

99sturlington
gen. 6, 2016, 10:48 am

And to finish things up in this thread, a meme that's making the rounds:

Describe yourself: Sense and Sensibility
Describe how you feel: Euphoria
Describe where you currently live: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: A Land More Kind Than Home
Your favorite form of transportation: Black Ships
Your best friend is: The Girl Next Door
You and your friends are: The People in the Trees
What’s the weather like: The Age of Innocence
You fear: Dark Places
What is the best advice you have to give: Finders Keepers
Thought for the day: Acceptance
How I would like to die: Let the Dead Lie
My soul’s present condition: Woman on the Edge of Time