100 books in 2011 discussion
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Miranda
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61. Teaching a Stone to Talk (Annie Dillard)finished 10.1.2011
62. A Dragon-Lover's Treasury of the Fantastic (ed. Margaret Weis)
finished 10.2.2011
63. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)finished 10.11.2011
Held up surprisingly well under the massive amount of hype surrounding it. It was sort of a Theseus meets Maximus in a reality TV show in the post-apocolyptic future. I found it hard to put down. If only the editor knew what a semi-colon was! But that's a minor quibble in the face of such a gripping story.
64. Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)finished 10.14.2011
65. Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
finished 10.16.2011
66. The Naming (Allison Croggon)finished 10.17.2011
I would say 3.5 stars. The writing was nice, but the book seemed interminable. Still, I know this is a first volume of a series, with lots of world-building and set-up to accomplish. Croggon borrowed liberally from a great many fantasy authors, everyone from Tolkien to Le Guin. What can I say though? I'm a sucker for this stuff. I liked the story, the detail, and the characters. There's enough potential to send me on the second book in the series.
67. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray)finished 10.22.2011
68. The Riddle (Alison Croggon)
finished 10.23.2011
69. The Crow (Alison Croggon)
finished 10.25.2011
70. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)finished 10.29.11
71. The Singing (Alison Croggon)
finished 10.30.11
72. Shakespeare (Bill Bryson)finished 11.1.2011
73. The Know-It-All (AJ Jacobs)
finished 11.5.2011
74. The Reader (Bernhard Schlink)
finished 11.6.2011
75. Le Morte d'Arthur (Thomas Malory)finished 11.8.2011
It took me a little while to get into the language, and the repetition made it quite a slog at times, but it was also triumphant and tragic. At times the only thing keeping me reading was the fact that as someone who love the Arthurian legends, this is a book I should read. But having read it and gotten used to all the smiting, I am very glad I did stick it out.
76. The Plague Dogs (Richard Adams)finished 11.8.2011
Actually I spent a good bit of the book not liking it much at all, mostly because it is so crushingly depressing. But the threads come together in the last hundred pages and I couldn't put it down. It would be worthwhile to unpack this book at length--a lot of interesting commentary going on, not just about the morality of lab tests on animals, but also the media and a community's response to being in the spotlight. I also thought it interesting that Snitter and Rowf assume that men are in control of everything, when really it is the actions of Snitter and Rowf themselves that cause the men to react and generally show how very little control they have over much of anything.
77. The Crystal Cave (Mary Stewart)78. The Hollow Hills (Mary Stewart)
79. The Last Enchantment (Mary Stewart)
80. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)finished 11.20.2011
81. The Wicked Day (Mary Stewart)finished 11.29.2011
At first this volume was jarring because I was so used to Merlin's first-person voice, and the narrative moved to third-person omniscient with a focus on Mordred's POV. I don't know of many interpretations that cast Mordred as a sympathetic character; this one was feasible and still contained the major elements for which Mordred is known. It had the inexorable feeling of a tragedy in which no one is in control of their fate--depressing, but a good read nonetheless.
82. Anansi Boys (Neil Gaiman)finished 11.29.2011
83. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
finished 11.30.2011
84. The Help (Kathryn Stockett)finished 12.3.2011
85. Spoon River Anthology (Edgar Lee Masters)
finished 12.4.2011
86. The Broken Bridge (Philip Pullman)
finished 12.4.2011
87. The Sense of Wonder (Rachel Carson)finished 12.5.2011
88. The Meadow (James Galvin)finished 12.9.2011
89. The Mabinogion (trans. Charlotte Guest)
finished 12.10.11
90. Unbroken (Laura Hillenbrand)finished 12.12.2011
91. Cranford (Elizabeth Gaskell)finished 12.15.2011
A nice little story that meanders along with nothing much of a plot for most of it. It could be called vignettes, actually, though things do draw together in the end. Some really funny moments, too! Definitely need to read more Gaskell.
92. Gilead (Marilynne Robinson)finished 12.15.2011
93. Searoad (Ursula K. Le Guin)finished 12.19.2011
94. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)finished 12.19.2011
Just loved this. Can a book be nostalgic even if you've never read it? Yes, it can.
95. The Sea Around Us (Rachel Carson)finished 12.20.2011
96. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (Haruki Murakami)finished 12.23.2011
97. Blink (Malcolm Gladwell)
finished 12.23.2011
98. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
finished 12.27.2011
99. All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot)finished 12.30.2011
With hours to spare...100. Black Hearts in Battersea ( Joan Aiken)finished 12.31.2011
Whoooooo! :)
finished 9.28.2011
I think the chief problem with this book was actually my problem (It's not you, it's me!). I think I just expected to LOVE this unconditionally because of the subject. And it's a great, great idea for a story. But unfortunately I just liked it. I enjoyed the story, but found the characters to be...I don't know...hazy. Normally that would be okay, especially in the first book of a trilogy, but I felt a little disappointed. Still, I liked it well enough to go on to the sequel.