Top... er... 15

I've tried hard, I really have... but I couldn't get my favourite books of last year (see previous post) down to ten. So here we have my top fifteen, not in any particular order.

1. The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak. Young adult, set in Germany during WWll, and is about how a young girl survives during the war. Narrated by Death.

2. The Earthsea Quartet - Ursula K. Le Guin. Young adult fantasy. The travels, trials, and tribulations of the wizard, Ged.

3. Saplings - Noel Streatfeild. Persephone novel. Charts the disintegration of a family during WWll. Focusses on the children.

4. Dissolution - C.J. Sansom. Historical crime. The first of the Matthew Shardlake series set during the reign of Henry Vlll. Lots of monks. I wasn't quite sure what they were all up to...

5. Family Roundabout - Richmal Crompton. Another Persephone novel. Concerns the dynamics and the interactions of two families, the Fowlers and the Willoughbys, during the 1920s.

6. Redburn - Herman Melville. Classic lit. Serving aboard ship in the 1800s. Was it fun? Not really...

7. Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin. Historical crime. 12th. century Oxford. Adelia, a female doctor from Italy, has been sent to solve the murders of several children.

8. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova. Horror. Vampires, but also a nice jaunt around Eastern Europe.

9. The First Casualty - Ben Elton. Historical Crime. WWl whodunnit but also much about conditions at the front. Not Elton's usual.

10. The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton. Classic Lit. New York around 1900. Charts the fall of Lily Bart, born to a life of ease and luxury but suddenly without the means to support such a lifestyle.

11. Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters. Historical crime. First in the Amelia Peabody series of books set in Eygpt.

12. The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R. King. Historical crime. First in the Mary Russell series, charting the beginnings of Mary's relationship with Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

13. Still Life - Louise Penny. Crime. The first of the Armand Gamache series set in the village of Three Pines, Quebec. Wonderfully atmospheric.

14. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Historical crime. What can I say?

15. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling. Young adult fantasy. Again... what is there to say? Other than I wish it wasn't the last book...

A few facts and figures:

Fiction - 59, non-fiction - 11. That's not so great. I thought I read more non-fiction than that.

Female authors - 33, male - 37. Funny how you deceive yourself. I would have sworn I read and liked female authors much more than male.

Re-reads - 4. Yeah, well... I knew I didn't reread much.

I clearly have a taste for Young Adult fantasy - 17, plus a couple more I wasn't sure of.

I've also clearly discovered a real liking for historical crime books!

All in all I count the year a success. I've read more than ever, blogged more than ever, and made some delightful new reading friends. I can't wait to see what 2008 brings.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Book list - 2007

Copying an idea from several people, this is just a list of my books read for 2007 so that I can link to it in my sidebar. I shall pick it to pieces ;-) and choose some favourites this afternoon.


1. Christmas Angel - Jo Beverley
2. The Little Country - Charles De Lint
3. The Magicians' Guild - Trudi Canavan
4. Indian Summer – Will Randall
5. The Undomestic Goddess – Sophie Kinsella
6. Morality for Beautiful Girls – Alexander McCall Smith
7. The Novice – Trudi Canavan
8. The High Lord – Trudi Canavan
9. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
10. Diplomatic Baggage – Brigid Keenan
11. Straight Face – Nigel Hawthorne
12. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen – Alan Garner
13. The Moon of Gomrath – Alan Garner
14. The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic – Sophie Kinsella
15. Knit One Kill Two – Maggie Sefton
16. Cirque de Freak – Darren Shan
17. The Vampire’s Assistant – Darren Shan
18. Practically Perfect – Katie Ford
19. Over Hill and Dale – Gervase Phinn
20. The Winds Twelve Quarters – Ursula K. Le Guin
21. The Earthsea Quartet – Ursula K. Le Guin
22. Quartet in Autumn – Barbara Pym
23. Saplings – Noel Streatfeild
24. The Book of Dead Days – Marcus Sedgwick
25. The Kalahari Typing School for Men – Alexander McCall Smith
26. Dissolution – C.J. Sansom
27. My Sister’s Keeper – Jodi Picoult
28. Family Roundabout – Richmal Crompton
29. Never the Bride – Paul Magrs
30. Redburn – Herman Melville
31. In Ethiopia with a Mule – Dervla Murphy
32. The Three Imposters – Arthur Machen
33. Lone Traveller – Anne Mustoe
34. The Railway Detective – Edward Marston
35. The Testament of Gideon Mack – James Robertson
36. Magyk – Angie Sage
37. Growing into War – Michael Gill
38. The Grass is Singing - Doris Lessing
39. Sylvester - Georgette Heyer
40. Stargazing - Peter Hill
41. The Observations - Jane Harris
42. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
43. The Full Cupboard of Life - Alexander McCall Smith
44. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson
45. Lighthouse - Tony Parker
46. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein
47. Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson
48. Tales of the City - Armistead Maupin
49. Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin
50. Dracula - Bram Stoker
51. The Book of Lost Things - John Connolly
52. The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova
53. A Time of Gifts - Patrick Leigh Fermor
54. The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray - Chris Wooding
55. Smoke and Mirrors - Neil Gaiman
56. To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf
57. Abarat - Clive Barker
58. Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters
59. The First Casualty - Ben Elton
60. Address Unknown - Kressmann Taylor
61. Short Stories of the 19th. Century - selected by D.S. Davies
62. The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
63. Still Life - Louise Penny
64. Castaways of the Flying Dutchman - Brian Jacques
65. Defying Hitler – Sebastian Haffner
66. Little House in the Big Woods – Laura Ingalls Wilder
67. A High Wind in Jamaica – Richard Hughes
68. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
69. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – Laurie R. King
70. The Uncommon Reader – Alan Bennett

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

It's rather strange to be coming to the end of yet another reading year. It hardly seems five minutes since it started! Hopefully I'll squeeze in one, possibly even two, more books before the new year starts but, whatever, it's nice to finish the year on a high with some really fun reading.



I feel like I want to really gush about this book. Several people, including deslily, recommended Laurie R. King's 'Mary Russell' series and being a bit of a Sherlock Holmes fan I had a feeling I would probably like them. Like? Make that 'love'! I adored this first one, The Beekeeper's Apprentice.

Mary Russell is fifteen and lives in Sussex with her despicable aunt. One day while out walking she stumbles across (literally) a retired Sherlock Holmes watching bees. Recognising another with a similar mind to his own the two strike up a friendship and Mary eventually becomes a kind of apprentice in the crime solving business. It's while Mary is at university that a diplomat's daughter is kidnapped. Holmes and Russell work together on the case and bring it to a conclusion. But have they? And who is trying to kill them, and why?

It was sort of weird at first to be reading a Sherlock Holmes book that was a)by an author other than Conan Doyle and b)not narrated by Watson! It's not quite the same, but then you wouldn't expect it to be and I personally was quite happy with the change in style, though perhaps not every dedicated Holmes fan would be. Depends on your preference really. I liked the portrayal of Holmes and found his friendship with Mary quite believable. It was nice in fact to see him as a human being with feelings and emotions and the ability to become attached to someone. I already know how the relationship changes and can't wait to read about how it happens. The crime element of the novel was also excellent; I tried to guess who was behind it all and got it quite wrong. The author does a great job of building to a climax and you fair gallop along with her to the end. Honestly, I can't recommend this book highly enough and am so pleased that there are many more in the series to read. Book two, A Monstrous Regiment of Women, is already on my tbr pile and will be one of my first reads for 2008.

Christmas Eve

It's pouring with rain here tonight but I can still hear the church bells in the town ringing in Christmas. (It's 11.45pm.) They go wonderfully with the sound of raindrops falling on the roof.

We've had a very quiet Christmas Eve. I baked this morning, sausage rolls (can't have Christmas without those) and a peach and mincemeat pie. For the first time in years we're not having a turkey or a chicken on Christmas Day but a joint of roast beef instead and pork on Boxing Day. My two daughters will be here for both days with the eldest's husband and grandkids. The grandson is too young at fourteen months to have any idea what's going on but the grand-daughter is seven and *very* excited. She and I are a bit of a team so I'm looking forward to a lot of fun over the next couple of days. I firmly believe that Christmas is a time for children (of all ages) and this little titbit from Alan Titchmarsh's Fill my Stocking is one of my favourites:

"A friend of mine tells me of the time she went to her small son's nativity play, at the local school one afternoon in the week leading up to Christmas. There had been much in the way of preparation. Costumes had been cobbled together, all the angels had been found wings and the customary dolly had been wrapped in swaddling clothes. Emotions were running high.

When the great day arrived, the parents sat down in the audience to watch the performance. All went well until Mary and Joseph arrived at the inn and Joseph knocked on the door. It was opened by the innkeeper.

'May we come in?' asked Joseph.

'No!' replied the innkeeper abruptly and closed the door in their faces.

The Little boy playing Joseph looked around him nervously, then knocked again. The innkeeper opened the door once more and glowered at Joseph. 'What do you want?'

'I am Joseph and this is my wife, Mary. She is expecting a baby. May we come in?'

The innkeeper shook his head vigorously. 'No, you can't!'. The door was slammed again.

Joseph was getting more and more alarmed now and banged on the door until the scenery shook. As the door was opened he asked pleadingly, 'If there is no room at the inn, perhaps we could stay in your stable?'

'No, you can't!'

'Why not?'

'Because I wanted to play Joseph!'"

*****

Several people commented about my brother who I mentioned in my previous post. The news is that he will have to have an operation to replace his faulty heart valve. We hoped it wouldn't be necessary, he's disabled as it is and even being in hospital is difficult for him, let alone having to go through a major operation. But there you go, it *is* necessary and his quality of life will be much improved once the op is done. Thanks to all for your kind thoughts.

I'll be back after Boxing Day no doubt. I may even have finished The Beekeeper's Apprentice by then! It's an excellent read, great fun, but my time for reading has been severely limited this past week so my Christmas ghost story anthology, borrowed from the library, has had to wait.

Have a great day tomorrow and let's offer up a few prayers for more peace in the world. We could certainly do with it.

Merry Christmas!

I haven't posted all week, partly because I've been so busy with Christmas preparations, but also it's been a difficult week here. My brother was admitted to hospital with complications due to a faulty heart valve. It was rather unexpected so chaos kind of ensued. Sadly for him it looks like he'll be in hospital for Christmas but hopefully he'll be fine and 2008 will be a better year, healthwise, for him. I just wanted to wish all the lovely people who drop by my blog a truly wonderful Christmas and I hope your holidays are all that you would wish for.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Finished this one at last!



It's been absolutely brilliant reading this in a relaxed manner over the past few weeks, especially as I seem to be in a Sherlock Holmes sort of mood. ITV3 have been showing various of the Jeremy Brett series for weeks so it's been a nice tie-in with reading the stories. Just a few days after reading The Speckled Band, for instance, they showed that one, so it was interesting to compare the two. (I thought it was very faithful to the original.) And I shall be able to do much more of this as one of my Christmas presents from my husband this year will be the complete boxed set of the same series.

Of course some stories in the book were more familiar than others. A few, such as The Engineer's Thumb (my favourite I think), The Copper Beeches and The Beryl Coronet were almost unknown to me and thus I probably enjoyed them more than the more familiar like The Red Headed League or The Man with the Twisted Lip (though I do love that one too).

A good anthology anyway. I have A Study in Scarlett on the library tbr pile and have just started the first Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes book by Laurie R. King, The Beekeeper's Apprentice. So far, I absolutely love it. She has Holmes down to a 'T' and I like the character of Mary very much indeed. So the Sherlock Holmes theme continues and will continue into 2008 as I try to get hold of more of the original Holmes books and read as many of the Mary Russell series as I can get my hands on. I have two already and have just ordered The Moor because it seemed that Amazon UK are selling that one with the American cover. I much prefer those to ours and if I collect the whole series will probably go for those if possible. Yep... I know I'm a real fusspot. :-)

A High Wind in Jamaica

I now seem to have reached the exalted heights of Commodore with my Seafaring challenge. Three books read, one of them a classic, and that classic is A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes.



Well, this wasn't precisely what I was expecting. My overall memory of this is of the film of the book which was frequent Sunday afternoon TV viewing when I was a child. It seemed a happy film of children mistakenly taken off by pirates, the captain of said pirates being played by Anthony Quinn. So, it was kind of surprising to find this book is quite different to that.

The plot concerns the Bas-Thornton family who live in Jamaica. The five children of this family run wild in the ruins of the sugar plantations until one day they experience a hurricane. The parents decide it's too dangerous for the children to live there any more and pack them off to England. The ship they're on is boarded by pirates somewhere off Cuba and the children mistakenly get carried away. What follows is a story of how the children acclimatise to life aboard ship and an entirely male crew, and what they have to do to survive.

I gather this was first published in 1929 and I would imagine it caused quite a stir. The story is told from the point of view of Emily, a ten year old Bas-Thornton. There is an older girl from another family with them, Margaret, who seems to be around thirteen to fourteen, and what happens to her is broadly hinted at but left to the imagination. This is no fairytale of *nice* children and their adventures. There is death and murder and Hughes' depiction of children is more akin to Golding's Lord of the Flies than to what I would call a normal view where children try to do the right thing. Here they are not completely self-aware and tend to do what they have to in order to survive. And some of that is quite chilling to read about, and told rather matter-of-factly, which makes it even more shocking. It's definitely a disturbing book but also very humorous in many places; you could call it a black comedy of errors. I liked it but had no idea what to make of it once I'd finished and am still, two days later, thinking about the implications of Hughes' story. But then... that's what good literature does, doesn't it? It makes you think and ponder and, ultimately, changes you somehow.