Peace2 is still Mountaineering Mt TBR with Peace2 in 2021

Happy New Year and welcome to my thread. I wish you all a good year ahead, with some excellent books, some time with good friends and happiness. Hopefully 2021 will be an easier and better year for everyone.

My goals for this year are few - to read for pleasure, enjoyment, and to educate myself ... to reduce the pile of books waiting to be read. My aim is to reduce the waiting books by at least 50. This means I need to be cautious in my book acquisition (as opposed to reading more as in honesty it's the acquisition rather than the reading that is the issue).

I want to encourage myself to not waste time on books that I'm really not enjoying and to stick with the good stuff, but it's also okay to put a book down and try it again another time. I'm also going to try and tackle some of the books that have been on my shelf for a long time (in particular reducing the number of books still waiting from 2011 and earlier) but that's an aspiration rather than a strict goal.

In an ideal world, I'll also keep reasonably up to date with recording my reading (and hopefully not end up months adrift like I did last year).

>1 Peace2: Best wishes for 2021! And the best of luck with your reading goals which all sound worthwhile!

Happy new year to you! I hope you achieve your reading goals and discover some great books while doing so.

>1 Peace2: Happy New Year and Wonderful Reading for 2021.

Happy new year!

Happy New Year and welcome to you all. Looking back at the thread title - I was sure I'd removed the second reference to me - mind you, having spent most of the last year alone what with working from home and lockdowns etc, it may be a reflection on life at the moment.

January Book #1 Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

It was a close thing as to whether this would actually end up being a 2020 book, as I'd only got about 25 pages left to read at midnight but I eventually finished at about 12.45 am on the 1st. This had a different feel to the other titles that I'd read by the author previously although like them it deals with a moral dilemma. The story revolves around Delia, a search and rescue specialist and her family. She has grown up with just her father, and now is engaged to be married to the father of her young daughter, with their joint best friend heavily involved in their lives.

Her father is unexpectedly arrested and charged with kidnapping her when she was young. The rest of the story explores the outcome of that revelation by gradually revealing the history to it. It also explores the US prison system. Although an interesting story, it almost felt like the author was throwing extras into the story some of which were not to do with the actual main plot line. The father's experiences in prison are horrific, but to a certain extent felt extraneous - some characters/events drew sympathy to an extent, but didn't really add to the actual main storyline. The introduction of a Hopi character and then a section visiting her family didn't seem relevant to the main plot line.

Overall I feel the book would have been better if it had stayed focused on the main point of the story - Delia, her family and the situation surrounding the kidnapping, arrest and whether her father would be found guilty. More time could have been spent creating better character depth/development for the central characters.

January Book #2 The Broken Eye by Brent Weeks

On the third or fourth time of trying, I actually got into this audio book - the trick to be less distracted by other things - I was listening while cleaning in the days between Christmas and New Year while I was off work. This time I actually found myself getting properly into the story. We see the political maneuvering of Andross, the continued development of Kip as he grows in both himself and in what he learns both as Blackguard and in his dealings with Andross. In some respects, a lot of this book felt like set up for what comes next.

I don't have the next book in the series and, judging by the fact it took multiple tries to get into this one, I should probably wait to get it until I have a few days together to start and get right into it before hurrying to buy it.

As to the thread title, lol. That does seem to be a reflection of the company we keep at the moment.

Have a splendid reading (and otherwise!) year. :)

January Book #3 A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens read by Hugh Grant

I have to say that Hugh Grant did a really good job of reading this classic and I enjoyed listening to this. Shame it's so short really as I'd have been quite happy to listen to him reading to me for longer.

January Book #4 Shattered by Teri Terry

This is the final part of the Slated trilogy, a YA dystopia set in England in the not too distant future. Overall, it's not a terrible ending, as always there are elements that feel a little far-fetched (beyond the actual Slating process) in terms of certain characters' machinations but it wasn't too bad and overall I was glad I've gave the series a go.

Happy reading in 2021, >1 Peace2:!

as in honesty it's the acquisition rather than the reading that is the issue

Insert that Mayor of Failure cartoon here. :)

Happy new year and new thread!

>12 libraryperilous: That is absolutely spot on.

Happy New Year!

>12 libraryperilous: Haha! I'd be laughing even harder if it weren't so true...

January Book #5 Archaeology: An introduction to the world's greatest sites by Eric Cline

This is a series of short lectures that I got from Audible on the subject of Archaeology. It covers sites from around the world (briefly), changes in techniques over history, significant figures in archaeological history - interesting and as it says 'an introduction' but it isn't hugely in depth and it covers a lot of ground. Very listenable, and gives ideas of things to look into further.

January Book #6 Torchwood Soho: Parasite by James Goss

The story centres around the character Norton Folgate as seen in previous audio dramatisations. It's a historical piece, with a bit of time travel thrown in with the appearance of PC Andy. It's a middle of the road story - not when of the better ones, but also a long way from being put with the ones I didn't enjoy.

January Book #7 Black Butler Vol 1 by Yana Toboso

This was a re-read - as I acquired volumes 28 and 29 last year, I've decided to start back at the beginning of the manga series and revisit them all before tackling the new two (I wonder if volume 30 might also have been released by the time I get to the end!). I'm not going to re-review these, but I am aiming to read about 1 per week (so I should get to the new ones round about July by my current estimations.

>13 Peace2:, >15 clamairy: It definitely is an LOLsob kind of cartoon for me. :)

Happy New Year!

January Book #9 Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones

The story is told in two parts. It is the story of two half-sisters, Chaurisse's mother and father are married and live together, Dana and her mother live nearby and her father pops in regularly but doesn't live with them. Dana grows up knowing that her father has two families and another daughter almost the same age, having her life affected by things that Chaurisse wants. Chaurisse grows up believing she is her father's only child and seems spoilt.

It's a good read, I found the pace moved quickly. It's sad how the two girls; lives are affected both in the early stages and later. I felt for Dana and her awareness of her difference as the secret family, but I also felt for Chaurisse because she didn't know. I felt for the mothers of the two girls as well, although part of me wanted Dana's mother to break the tie between them, particularly when she has an offer of real marriage rather than the bigamist one she has.

January Book #10 A World Away - A Memoir of Mervyn Peake by Maeve Gilmore

Maeve Gilmore was Mervyn Peake's wife and this is her biography of his life. It is sad and poignant and you can feel her love for him in her words. It is not a long book, but rather dips in and out of significant periods of their lives to show the influence they had upon the person he was. It shows the hopes and dreams and disappointments they suffered. While her love and admiration for him are clear, she also says that they were both impractical when it came to money.

>19 Peace2: There is an interesting counterpoint to that situation in Alif the Unseen, which is set in an unidentified "Persian Gulf" state. There the protagonist is the son of the second wife. His father only visits occasionally. The difference here is that this being a Moslem state, the second marriage is not bigamous. Race is very much the issue here. His mother is beautiful, but Indian rather than Arab, so racially inferior in her husband's family's eyes; her son's skin is "too dark", but the acceptable, Arab, first wife has given him only daughters. Alif is not a terribly likeable character, at least initially, but the pain of watching his mother love a man who is embarrassed by his son's existence and uncomfortable bring seen with him, is very welll portrayed..

>20 -pilgrim-: I'd not come across that book - taking a look at it, it sounds interesting. I know you are mentioning it in counterpoint here, but would you recommend it as a read in itself?

>21 Peace2: It is a fantasy novel, that mixes traditional Islamic folklore with modern Middle Eastern internal politics, and a very realistic portrayal of what it is like to be an ordinary citizen is a majority Moslem country.

It was one of the best fantasy novels that I read last year, and I heartily recommend it.

Just be prepared to dislike "Alif" (that's his online pseudonym) intensely, initially. He displays all the worst traits of a teenage boy with a chip on his shoulder to start with, but he matures over the course of the novel.

It is his neighbour, and childhood friend, Dina, who uses a devout interpretation of Islam as a form of rebellion against the misogyny around her, who is the admirable "hero" character. (The idea of adopting the niqāb as a feminist statement contradicts Western rhetoric around Islam, but makes perfect sense: as the daughter of migrant workers, her societally expected rôle is to work as a domestic and be sexually available to her employer; by adopting the veil at puberty, she is advertising that her body should be as inviolable as that of the Arab women, and by removing even her face from display, she is demanding that she be judged for her personal qualities, and not upon her appearance.)

ETA: The reason that I never got around to reviewing it last year is that it is extremely difficult to describe and do justice to it.

>21 Peace2:, >22 -pilgrim-: I second Pilgrim's praise for Alif the unseen, and agree with her excellent analysis of the book. It's a very good read.

>22 -pilgrim-: >23 Sakerfalcon: Thank you both - added it to my list of books I want to read 😊

>24 Peace2:
I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

One further warning: Dina comes over as both infuriating and rather a nonentity at the beginning, because we are seeing her with Alif's eyes, and he is frustrated by her failure to follow his standards.

Fortunately events overtake him fast enough that he has to re-evaluate his opinions. But don't underestimate Dina just because Alif originally does.

January Book #11 Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

A series of essays on topics that include race, feminism, gender, politics, priviledge and 'literature' (or novels - 50 shades of grey features prominently so ... take your pick).

Overall the collection is interesting, but some of the essays are better than others.

January Book #12 The Winter King by Bernard Cromwell

I struggled to get through this one, every now and then I found myself drawn in only to lose it again a chapter or so later. It was a gory presentation and also quite long winded. Less legend more 'Arthur as a man', lots of muddy Britain facing invading Saxons. Even Jonathan Keeble, a narrator I normally enjoy a lot, couldn't draw me properly into this one - he might be the only reason I finished it but I definitely won't be getting the rest of this series at this point.

January Book #15 The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Glorious world building, fascinating characters. I was swept away by this one. What a treat!

So yesterday was my seventh Thingaversary! So many years here already (I know it's not that long compared to many) and I still wonder why it took me so long to find my true internet home. I'm still fighting an ongoing battle with my TBR pile (that doesn't change) although I think things are improving - it is smaller than it was and it is growing more slowly. The act of cataloguing all my books was also the key to me realising I had to either read faster or stop buying as many and in 2015 when I acquired 223 but only read 208 (some of which were likely to have been borrowed) I knew I was in dangerous territory.

At the beginning of 2017, I worked out that I needed 19 years to read the books in the house, if I read 50 of them a year and didn't get any more and so at that point I buckled down, tightened the straps and tried to start dealing. Heading into 2021, I still have enough books for 12.8 years - so in 4 years, I've reduced it by 6.2 years which is a good start.

That continues to be my goal that regardless of how many books I acquire, at the end of the year the TBR pile needs to be 50 less than the year before (given the vast majority in years prior to last came from charities, I'm not quite as extravagant as the acquisition of 223 books looks! I'm certainly not that wealthy! Last year most were from Audible and were bought in sales due to me spending most of the year isolating).

So onto the important matter of 7th year Thingaversary acquisitions - (7+1 to grow on)

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern (I loved the Night Circus and hope this is as good)
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett
Torchwood: Exodus Code by John Barrowman and Carole Barrowman
Torchwood: Three Monkeys by James Goss
The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths
The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell (enjoyed the first of this series so hoping for good things here)
Winding Road by Clare Sladden - couldn't get the touchstones to work for this one - it's an Audible Original
The Sea in the Sky by Jackson Musker (same as previous - Audible Original, touchstones not working at present.

>26 Peace2: I loved Priory, especially the dragon mythology. Water dragons! I'm glad you were swept away.

Happy Thingaversary!

Edited: HTML error

January Book #16 A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

I listened to the audio of this one. It's well read and I enjoyed it as a continuation of the Wayfarers series. Now I'm eyeing up the third part as it's in the Audible sale this week - and I've already met my Thingaversary quota, so I really really shouldn't be looking at further acquisitions at this point.

January Book #18 Torchwood: Three Monkeys by James Goss

The next in the audio dramatisation collection - starring PC Andy and Owen - the characters are a brilliant combination. Definitely a good one.

January Book #19 Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

The second in the Wolves of Mercy Falls series. In this installment, Sam has managed to stablise his shifting and remains in human form, he and Grace are still together and we meet two of the new shifters, one of whom particularly brings his own sense of drama with him.

I can't put my finger on why I seemed to find this installment harder to get into than the first - maybe because I listened to the first, maybe because it's been so long since the first, maybe I just wasn't fully in the mood for this, although it wasn't anywhere near bad enough to give up on.

Sam is struggling with his newly stable life, at first unsure whether to trust it, then in taking on Beck's responsibilities. Grace is becoming more confrontational with her parents, particularly where Sam is concerned. Cole, the new shifter, brings a wealth of trouble.

Part of me wants to read on to the final part, and find out how the threads at the end of this book get sewn together with the problems presumably resolved in some way. Not absolutely convinced though (and don't have a copy so would need to track one down which probably isn't going to happen any time soon anyway).

January Book #21 Truesight by David Stahler Jr

With a TBR pile the size of mine, why am I borrowing books from Audible Stories?

This is an older child/younger teen book. Jacob lives in Harmony, a community on a planet with Earth settlers, he is 13 and shortly due to leave school. Jacob is blind, but so is everyone else in Harmony, by either birth or design (sometimes design before or at birth). The people of Harmony believe that being blind leads to a better life, more trusting, more caring, more equal, and overall less corrupt. Suddenly Jacob develops sight, he keeps it a secret for a short while, discovering things he had begun to suspect even before gaining sight, that not everyone in Harmony is as honest, caring and decent as the community's rules dictate. His sight gives him the evidence that he's right.

It's a reasonable enough book for the age it's aimed at. As an adult there are plot holes galore - how does he know which colour is which, how can he read facial expression immediately, things like being able to put names to faces is fine when he can hear their voices, identifying flowers when he's had a chance to smell them - although the science of regaining sight and the brain immediately understanding the input it's receiving is somewhat questionable I think from the little I've heard of people who have had surgery to restore sight after many years without.

The dilemma of corruption in a cult-like community in itself isn't that new in fiction, but I don't think I've come across it in young fiction in this kind of way. The story doesn't have any kind of resolution as it's the first part of a trilogy. As the rest of the series isn't available to borrow, I doubt I will continue. As Science Fiction, the 'being on another planet' is only barely relevant - there has been difficulty growing crops leading to shortages and cattle have died, but apart from that and the technology the community use so that they don't bump into each other and so they can find out where they are, it doesn't have a significant 'sci fi' feel to it.

Happy Thingaversary! Sorry to hear The Winter King was not to your taste. I have that one on my Kindle, and keep forgetting about it.

I'm not sure whether I can make this work or not, but I'm going to try and fill in the missing time since January with at least the most significant books, although I suspect I'm going to struggle to remember some of them (that was why I had started keeping a record here of what I've read after all). I've kept up with my actual cataloguing of books so that will help somewhat. I've come several times over the last couple of months and by the time I've found my thread, I've run out of time to write anything *sigh*.

So here we go

January Book #23 Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

I quite liked this tale. Three women each take their lives into their own hands in different ways - fairy tale style. Miryem is the daughter of a money-lender, but her family is on the verge of starvation because people will not repay their debts and so she takes action. Wanda begins to escape her abusive father when he trades her to Miryem for his debt and Irina is the unwanted daughter of duke who unexpectedly finds herself wanted by a tsar. There are some weaker parts that let down the whole somewhat, but overall I liked it.

January Book #24 The City and The City by China Mieville

Sometimes I finish a book and wonder about what prompted the idea in the author. This is an intricate murder mystery that at first seems a little slow and complicated, but it's actually far more intricate. Two cities exist side by side, but the inhabitants of each have been taught to 'not see' the other city, they know it's there but they don't acknowledge its existence. Problems ensue when a murder appears to have happened in one city and the body was left in the other and so the result is a detective has to cross from one city to the other to investigate.

January Book #25 The Steep Approach to Garbadale by Iain Banks

The story of a family looking to sell their business to an American company. Much of the story focuses on a member of the family who is on the outside of the main group and flits between his relationships with his cousin and his role in the family.

Can't say I loved this one.

January Book #28 Katherine by Anya Seton

An intricate historical novel. Orphaned Katherine has been brought up in a convent, until she is married off to a knight Hugh Swynford. Their relationship is a rocky one and takes time to develop to a point at which they can tolerate each other, but are not in love. When she meets John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, things are different and she falls in love and ultimately becomes his mistress.

I've seen this described as a romance, which I suppose in a way it is, but it's also more than that, it's quite an intricate portrayal of the historical period. There are some over 'romantic' portrayals - especially how often the author refers to Katherine's beauty, but overall it's quite an interesting book.

February Book #1 Beyond Strange Lands by Simon Taylor and David Peterson

I really struggled to finish this - poor quality audio with too many extras thrown into the mix to make it easy to follow. Then the story is just odd - it seemed to add some new confusion in the form of local folklore or unexplained effect (and some new characters) in every chapter/episode to the point at which nothing seemed to make sense.

All I can see is I'm glad it was free as I'd have been even more disappointed if I had paid for it.

February Book #2 The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

I really struggled with this one - I was in need of something lighter and pacier and while this had action, there was lots of words in between. Not for me.

February Book #3 Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

What a remarkable book - it tells the history of the first Mrs Rochester - 'the mad woman in the attic' in Jane Eyre. It's not a long book, but it packs so much into those few pages - so many things to take time to consider. Antoinette has a difficult childhood, her father has died, her mother is obsessed with a new husband and her younger brother, she's growing up on a Caribbean island where she is trapped by the effects of colonialism and the end of it, and racism. She is isolated, her only real friend a servant who had looked after her when she was young. Passed from the control of one white man to another, she finds herself given to Rochester, a man she tries to make happy, only to find herself mistreated by him as his view of her is tainted by rumour. It's heartbreaking as the story heads for the inevitable destruction of all hope for Antoinette to become anything other than the Bertha of the Jane Eyre story. The lush language in the book really brings to life the setting, the scents, the climate, it feels alive and solid in the story. Quite something, but definitely gains from a familiarity with Jane Eyre.

February Book #5 How Great Science Fiction Works by Gary K Wolfe

This was part of the 'Great Courses' series, a set of lectures that looks at the subject matter of the title. Touching on many well known authors and works from the genre, it covers the historical context in which they were written and sometimes the political and cultural context. Authors such as Shelley, Asimov, Le Guin and Wells are touched on. I found some of the lectures more interesting than others, but still ended up coming away with a long list of books I'd be interested in trying at some point in the future.

February Book #6 Throne of Jade and March Book #22 Black Powder War by Naomi Novik

Both continue the series that started with Temeraire and sees an alternative history with Temeraire and the other dragons involved in the battles of the Napoleonic Wars. The books have a real feel of the era (and the difficulties of including dragons as part of your army). Quite enjoyable overall.

February Book #8 Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley

This book seemed to have some really strong points and some others that let it down somewhat. A grieving widow and mother is staying in a cottage on the estate where she grew up, she reconnects with a childhood friend who has just inherited the estate as the nearest relative to the former landowners. As he tries to decide what to do with the estate, their lives and friendship reconnects and in the process they begin to unravel the history of the original landowning family and also that of the widow. It's a tale that takes her to Thailand and to France, unearthing secrets from the past. It's a story with a couple of central male characters who are self-centred and selfish and the women who suffer as a result of their actions and still soldier on and rebuild their lives.

There were a few loose ends that weren't tied up but overall, it was a pretty intricate plot, a passable building romance and a quite enjoyable read.

>33 Peace2:

#24 The City and The City. I enjoyed this book. I think it is the only Mieville I have read so far. I did not enjoy it that much that I was determined to rush into reading another of his books. Apparently it was July 2012 when I read the book.

#25 The Steep Approach to Garbadale. My enjoyment of this may have been enhanced by the fact that I worked for a family owned business and Iain Banks's depiction of the matriarch was perfect when I compared it to the matriarch of the company I worked for.

There were a number of Iain's mainstream books published in the mid-years of his career that were not a patch on his earlier works. My recollection is that The Steep Approach to Garbadale was the first one to start the return to form. I have to confess that I read everything Iain produced as it was published and would be pre-disposed to liking his work.

>35 Peace2: #5 How Great Science Fiction Works. This sounds interesting.

>36 pgmcc: I have since read another book by China Mieville but accidentally in the sense that I picked it up off the shelf and started reading without realising when I selected it that it was the same author - it was Un Lun Dun which is a YA book.

I've found Iain Banks' works more problematic. I gave up on The Wasp Factory as I really couldn't manage it, found The Crow Road okay but not great. I read Transition from his science fiction collection but it was an abridged version and so not great because it was I think a lot shorter than he'd intended. I have a few others on the shelf and am a bit wary about starting any - Walking on Glass and Use of Weapons and Matter. I think I need to find a couple before UoW for the Culture series.

>37 pgmcc: It was available on Audible - they did a buy one get one free on a selection of 'The Great Courses' series and I selected that and a course on Archaeology. I have to say that both were interesting, they're delivered by the lecturers who wrote them and come with downloadable notes lecture notes.

>38 Peace2: Transition is one I had difficulty with. Obviously the publishers did too; they published it on this side of the Atlantic as one of his mainstream books and in the US under his Iain M. Banks banner, i.e. Science Fiction. I liked the dark humour in The Wasp Factory. I found The Crow Road okay but not great, like yourself. Walking on Glass was weird. While I enjoyed reading it I did not see the connections amongst the three story strands until I attended a session where Iain explained them. He was a great performer; that is the only way I can describe how he explained the links. Do not ask me to explain them now.

I have found the Science Fiction books to be of a more consistent quality. My first exposure was Consider Phlebas which I thought was a ripping yarn. I loved Player of Games which was his second published SF book and preceded Use of Weapons. I liked PoG better than UoW which seemed to put me in the minority, but my recent re-read of PoG reinforced my views on the book. I enjoyed Matter.

I was in the fortunate position of being able to read Iain's books as they came out which meant I read them in chronological order without having to put too much effort in.

I noticed audible was the only format in which the course was available. It is good to know about the downloadable notes. That might be the clincher.

February Book #9 Metallic Love by Tanith Lee

This is the sequel to Silver Metal Lover. It has a different feel to it, I would say there is a more sinister feel to the characters in this book. Jane, the main character who narrates the story in the first book, makes an appearance, but this time the story centres on Loren as the narrator. Unlike Jane, Loren is from an impoverished background, she has a cynicism and an awareness of the world and its harsher realities that differs from the first book. As a child, she had accidentally found a copy of Jane's story and from there developed her interest in Silver. Silver though has gone too, and now we are faced with Verlis. Verlis, in many respects, is as different a character from Silver as Loren is from Jane.

Glad I finally got to read this, it's a fascinating world, with interesting (if in some cases quite disturbing) characters. I've been hunting for a copy of the third book, but Amazon doesn't recognise it and I can't find it in any other familiar online stores (even listing it as out of print) or on ebay which is a real shame.

February Book #10 On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming

This was an audible listen with David Tennant narrating. As terrible as this sounds, I barely remember the story, but I liked the narration. David Tennant is pleasant to listen to.

February Book #11 Power, Lust and Glory: The Story of Gold by Alvin Hall

This was an audible original, looking at Gold - what it's like as a metal, how it gained its reputation in different countries around the world along with its economic standing. Looking at its history from Incas and Conquistadors to modern day trading. This was interesting and well researched, I subtract a grade or two for the at times interfering background music and sound effects.

February Book #12 The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

The story of a young white boy, known as Peekay, growing up in South Africa at the time of the Second World War. His family origins are British and so he speaks English, but after his mother is taken ill he is sent to an Afrikaans boarding school, where he suffers terrible bullying. On the train home for the holidays, he meets and watches a boxer, who despite being the smaller of the contestants manages to win. And so begins the main character's new journey - he decides that he too wants to box, and more than that he wants to become the champion. I picked this book up because I wanted to read something from South Africa, but really a book that centres a fair amount of the events around boxing was never going to be a great choice for me - the book deals with a lot more than just boxing to be fair, but that does provide a background for many of Peekay's lessons and his development. The story takes him from school through to a period working in copper mines. I had some issues with the book beyond the focus on the boxing, notably the, for want of a better word, idolisation of the main character as he reached adulthood and became a successful boxer by so many different groups without real question.

February Book #14 Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

Although it started okay, as the book went on, I liked it less and less until I reached the point of seriously struggling to finish it. There are issues with the editing and the amount of repetition, but the point at which I really began to completely lose the desire to finish at all was when the focus moved to the Mord Sith or Darken Rahl. Not my thing at all.

February Book #15 The Last Wild by Piers Torday

This was another disappointing book for me. It's a children's dystopia on an environmental theme. The main character is a boy living in a world in which apparently all animals have died of a red eye disease. People live on a formula made by a single megacompany. He escapes from the facility in which he lives with the assistance of a talking cockroach and finds himself surviving with a group of starving animals and attempting to uncover the truth about what has happened to his family, the animals etc. Maybe part of the problem was that reading as an adult, I expected too much - the book is told from the point of view of the main character, so perhaps some of the plot holes can be accounted for by him being a child and not seeing bigger pictures or having more mature understanding, or perhaps it's that the author didn't think it would matter so much for children reading. Another possibility is that I've read too much in the dystopian type genre to accept less because it's for children. I prefered the Gregor the Overlander books (only read the first couple). I won't be seeking more of this series.

February Book #17 The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell

This was just a novella so I can't say very much about it. I enjoyed this as a continuation of Witches of Lychford series which I began last year and will be looking for more in the series when I can. I think I would have enjoyed this even more if I'd left less of a gap between the books.

February Book #18, March Book #4 and April Book #8 Clockwork Prince, Clockwork Princess and City of Bones by Cassandra Clare

The first two of these continue the series that I had started with Clockwork Angel, while the third is later in the arc of a bigger series in a universe, starting a new set. I generally enjoyed the initial series, there's some fun bits, some drama - it is young adult writing, there's a bit of romance (a bit of a love triangle for added drama).

The third book had new characters but in some respects the setting up of drama and romance was a bit predictable and the story felt a bit more repetitious from the earlier set.

Overall, not bad for a bit of light reading.

February Book #19 Torchwood: Rhys and Ianto's Excellent Barbecue by Tim Foley

A good addition to the audio dramatisations by Big Finish. The story begins with Ianto turning up unexpectedly at Rhys to join him for a barbecue with his friends - but are they friends and why has Gwen said that Rhys would love to have Ianto join them? These characters don't have a lot of on screen interaction but in actual fact they work well together and even if they aren't really friends at the outset, a bit of alien drama works wonders for beginning to appreciate someone else.

February Book #20 and March Book #11 The Magician's Apprentice and The Magicians' Guild by Trudi Canavan

So disappointing. I seem to have lost all enthusiasm for Trudi Canavan's writing. I made it through the first two in the series but really couldn't bring myself to tackle the rest so have given them away. I suppose on the upside, it's creating room on the shelf for things I am enjoying!

February Book #21 No One Left to Lie To: The Triangulations of William Clinton by Christopher Hitchens

Suffice to say that this is a look at the Clinton Presidency and some of the problems that surrounded that time.

February Book #22 The Witch's Daughter by Paula Brackston

Mixed feelings about this one. First things first on the positive front, the audio version is excellently read. The actual story had some good ideas following the life of Bess/Elizabeth/Eliza through history but some of them were better handled while others felt predictable or superficial. So variable quality in the plot as it goes on, I think the audio narration added a lot to the experience.

>38 Peace2: I have not read his more mainstream work so can't comment on any of those. On the sf side I like pgmcc definitely rate Player of Games very high, perhaps at the very top, of his books.
However, my very first Culture novel was Use of Weapons and I didn't find it problematic as a starting point. Rather the opposite: I think it was a good one, so don't let that keep you from starting ;-)

(I might check out How great science fiction works, I think it would be great for when I - presumably - start commuting to work again, come fall...)

>45 Busifer: Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Both your and pgmcc's comments are reassuring that I should give the sf books a try.

February Book #23 The Sea in the Sky by Jackson Musker (title touchstone removed as was pointing to wrong book and I couldn't get the system to show me alternate options)

So this was an Audible original and fortunately free. The story is about two people, Bee and Ty who are astronauts who have travelled to Saturn's moon Enceladus to explore its oceans. The story is told as a mix of banter between the two astronauts and the dispatches they send/receive from Earth.

I was glad to get to the end as I didn't enjoy it.

February Book #24 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

A collection of six stories that are linked and also separate. They are also of different genres. It's an unusual way to write the stories. Of the stories themselves, I found some of them more interesting and engaging than others and some I struggled to get through and the temptation did occur to skip chunks. Overall the book was okay and I gave it 3 stars.

February Book #25 Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh

A young adult journey into space. A group of teenagers are selected to head out from Earth in a new spaceship ready to prepare an exo-planet for colonisation. The story is more about the interaction of the people travelling - being confined in a small space, the irritations of other people's habits, the loneliness and depression that can set in in that environment, how different personalities deal with different kinds of setbacks. Think of a school trip and sharing a room with your mates - but it's going to last about 40 years. There is somewhat of a contradiction in the history of the story - the teens set off on their journey against the background of the London Olympics (2012) - yet the technology doesn't yet exist for this kind of travel and they are scheduled to visit other manned space expeditions near Mars for example.

Overall, it's a YA book, it's pretty good but at times a bit predictable and at others it seemed odd that there wasn't more safeguards in place for young astronauts. For me, I'm glad I gave it a try.

March Book #2 Brooklyn North by Peter McDonnell and Josh Sanburn

A true story investigating the wrongful conviction of four black men all of whom were investigated by the same NYPD officer. Each spent decades in prison before their conviction was overturned and they were not alone. The Audible original explores not just the individual cases but also the climate that led to the situation in which the convictions could occur.

March Book #5 The Looking Glass Wars, March Book #27 Seeing Red and April Book #25 Archenemy by Frank Beddor

What if Alice didn't visit Wonderland, but came to Earth from Wonderland? The first story begins with Alyss, princess and heir to the throne of Wonderland, celebrating her birthday. She is a somewhat spoilt young lady, but when Wonderland finds itself under attack by her Aunt Redd, she is rescued by her mother's chief protector Hatter Maddigan. Wonderland is a dark place with various forces battling for power. I liked the story more than I expected to. It's a YA adventure, dark and violent at times, but quite elaborate over the course of the three books.

March Book #7 The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

The main character is a lawyer who does most of his work out of his cars, a set of Lincolns - hence the title of the book. Micky Haller, the lawyer in question, find himself with a client that looks to good to be true - a rich man accused of assaulting a prostitute. As the case proceeds, things become more complicated. It was a relatively quick read with enough of a twist to keep it interesting.

March Book #8 The House by The Lake by Thomas Harding

Thomas Harding investigated the history of a house from his family's history. The Alexanders, a Jewish family in the 1920s built a summer house on the edge of a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. With the rise of the Hitler regime, the Jewish family leaves Germany and the house is abandoned. Over the coming years, other families move in and take over the house - living through the war, the Communist government that followed, the fall of Communism before ultimately the house is abandoned. The house's history is explored through the people that lived there - rightful owners, owners who were sold it by the government at a bargain price only to be later dispossessed before ultimately becoming a museum.

It's an interesting look at how history and events can be reflected in one place and how that small pocket can encapsulate so many aspects without being an obviously significant location.

March Book #9 A Wrinkle in the Skin by John Christopher

The world is wracked by a series of earthquakes leading to a collapse of the major civilisation. The main character is living in Guernsey when the earthquakes hit, leaving the island no longer surrounded by sea. The island has a small group of survivors, but the main character, a man called Cotter decides to leave and walk to England, taking a young orphaned boy with him, in the hope of finding his daughter alive there. It's a slow paced book, with brief forays of violence. I was disappointed in this one. I think I'm going to give John Christopher's books a miss for a while. As much as I loved his YA books, I've not enjoyed his adult ones as much - there seems to be a common recurrence of violence against women and the rule of strong men. I realise that this is in part an attitude that would have been more prevalent in the era in which he was writing but it's wearing and monotonous as it seems to be a staple part of the events in all of the adult novels that I've read so far.

March Book #10 Silence by Shusaku Endo

A fictional story based on real events in 17th century Japan. The local government were cracking down on the growth of Christianity, this story is narrated by a Portuguese Catholic missionary who has gone to travelled to Japan to find out what happened to his former mentor. Rumours are that he has renounced his faith. The book makes one consider this kind of renunciation might have a deeper more 'faithful' meaning in the context of the suffering of others.

I struggled with this book, a case of bad timing - I was in need of something lighter at the time, but soldiered on anyway once I'd started, looking to complete it, rather than dwelling on the bigger questions the book presents.

March Book #12 The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

I was tempted at times to give up on this, in large part because I didn't really engage sufficiently with any of the characters. I found Edie quite irritating - and very entitled - she seems to be of the opinion that she has the right to other people's memories no matter if they were painful or distressing or even just private and I think in many respects this was the reason I didn't like the book. She is given some letters from her mother's childhood and rather than passing them on and respecting her mother's privacy (her mother is still alive), she reads them and begins to investigate. She goes to the house where her mother had stayed as an evacuee during the war to find out more, and again tramples over the privacy of the sisters living in the house, disregarding their privacy and also the illness of one of the sisters. My dislike of the book also wasn't helped by it being unnecessarily long and at times it felt a little like the author had just thrown in another twist/mystery just for the sake of it.

March Book #13 West Cork

This was an Audible Original podcast and takes a look at the real life mystery of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in Schull a village in West Cork, in 1996. Years later the murderer has not been found. This takes a look at the investigation at the time, reexamines evidence and interviews witnesses and suspects. It doesn't finalise and solve the murder but does question some of the assumptions and actions at the time.

Interestingly I came across an article earlier this week, which suggested there is work underway to turn this into a film for Netflix.

>50 Peace2:
#11 That does sound interesting, even though I think I will wait a little before tackling. Have you read The Power and the Glory? A comparison would be interesting.

#13 Ew. Thank you for the warning.

>51 -pilgrim-: I read The Power and the Glory back when I was at school or maybe college - I went through a stage of reading a lot of Graham Greene's books. I don't remember the specifics of any of them now (pretty sure I read at least The Honorary Consul, TP&TG, The Quiet American but pretty sure there were others as well) but had been considering a re-read at some point as I couldn't even remember why I read so many and I'd more recently read Travels with my Aunt and Our Man in Havana along with The Third Man. So I can't offer any useful comparison now, because it's not one where the content has stuck with me.

March Book #14 Hitman Anders and the Meaning of it All by Jonas Jonasson

Written by the author of The Hundred Year Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared, this is the story of Anders, a former hitman who had recently been released from prison and was living in a motel, where the receptionist Pers and a former priest Johanna, convince him to do a few small jobs. While they keep him secure, they keep the bulk of the profits for themselves. As one source of income dries up, Pers and Johanna work hard to come up with an alternative. The book is mostly humorous with a little suspension of belief. It's an easy read, light and not to be taken too seriously.

March Book #15 Torchwood: The Crown by Jonathan Barnes

An audio dramatisation in the Torchwood series. A doctor is summoned to an asylum where there is a patient claiming to be Queen Victoria. I didn't particularly enjoy this one.

March Book #16 Evil has a name: The Untold Story of the Golden State Killer by Jim Clemente and Paul Holes

This was another Audible Original true crime investigation. It outlines the work of some of the investigators who persisted against the odds to draw together different investigations finding the links that showed the perpetrator was the same person. It describes how they made use of new technologies constantly trying to find the new evidence that will lead to them finding and ultimately prosecuting the person responsible.

Sending everyone good wishes.

>54 Peace2:
Right back at you.

>54 Peace2: from me and Mrs H also.

I have utterly failed at keeping up with my thread and talking about books at all in 2021! Do I try again for 2022? I did read lots though (or listen as there were lots of audiobooks in the finished lists, so that is something.

Has anyone read on the beach by Nevil Shute? What were your thoughts? Is it very depressing?

>57 Peace2: Happy New Year! Yes, I think you should try again.

I loved the book On the Beach, but it is not a happy read.

Happy new year! I hope we will see more of you this year, even if you don't manage to post regularly. May all your books be good ones!

>58 clamairy: Happy New Year to you too!

Thanks for the feedback on On the Beach - I will probably give it a try.

>59 Sakerfalcon: Happy new year! Another strange year and having spent the year working from home and doing lots of extra hours, keeping up online in the evening has not worked out well. Instead I did lots of reading and listening and crafting. I did miss the book discussion but was quite pleased with the crafting progress so that was something.

My Thingaversary is approaching - I'm going to get some books early in the Audible sale, I trust that this will be acceptable to the enforcers.

>57 Peace2: We would rather se you sometimes than not at all. Which is to say, post when you can, because we appreciate it, but we understand when life intervenes.