January 10, 2008 at 1:09 am · Filed under Books Etc
127 books and 37,955 pages read, which works out to an average of 299 pages per book. I would say that I enjoyed most of them, and as you can see here in bold there are 48 I would seriously encourage others to read. That’s more than 1 in 3 books which ended up being favourites, which isn’t bad at all.
I haven’t decided for sure, but I’ll probably set my overall goal for 2008 at 150 books and 45,000 pages, since I didn’t have to push myself at all to surpass my goal for 2007.
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007
January 10, 2008 at 12:40 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Mystery and Suspense
127. The Clock Strikes Twelve by Patricia Wentworth (Mystery) 340 p.
I’m a big fan of the Golden Age of mystery novels, and although I don’t think Patricia Wentworth quite matches up to Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers, I love her books all the same. The mysteries are entertaining, but the manners and society of 1940’s and 50’s England are what make the Miss Silver series for me.
By a complete coincidence, I read this on New Year’s Eve, which is when it’s set: New Year’s Eve, 1940. Important secret documents go missing from James Paradine’s briefcase, and the evidence suggests it must be a member of his own family. During dinner, he makes a speech, accusing an unnamed person of betraying the family. He tells them all that he knows the identity of the traitor, and that he intends to stay in his study until midnight, to give the person time to come to him and confess. The next morning, he is found murdered. When the family’s attempts to hush up the incident at dinner fail, the principal heir, Mark Paradine, hires Miss Silver to clear up the case.
Books read: 127
Pages read: 37,955
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Miss Silver, Patricia Wentworth
January 10, 2008 at 12:39 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
126. Ashworth Hall by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 384 p.
Another Thomas Pitt novel; I continue to enjoy this series quite a bit. Pitt is called on to provide security for a well-respected man from the Government, who is to be a negotiator at a conference on the Irish Problem. The negotiations, to concern Home Rule for Ireland, are to be held at Ashworth Hall, owned by none other than Pitt sister-in-law, Emily.
When Greville is found dead in his bath, Pitt’s job changes from security to investigation, as Emily’s husband Jack takes Greville’s place in the negotiations. Fearing for Pitt’s career and Jack’s life, Emily and her sister Charlotte do their utmost to find and expose the killer.
I liked the plot, I liked the characters, and the Victorian setting was fun. All in all, a good way to pass a few lazy hours.
Books read: 126
Pages read: 37,615
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 12:28 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
125. Pentecost Alley by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 405 p.
After trying Death of a Stranger, I moved on to Perry’s other series, featuring Scotland Yard Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife, Charlotte. I like this series much better; I find Thomas Pitt a much more sympathetic and interesting character than William Monk, and I really like both Charlotte and her sister Emily, who are both regular POV characters.
A prostitute is found murdered in her room in Pentecost Alley, and there is serious evidence pointing to the son of a rich and influential man. Pitt is called in because of the sensitive nature of the case—the kind that could easily break a police officer’s career. And just when Pitt thinks he’s found the solution, the whole case is turned on its head.
I sort of guessed where the plot was going, but it’s a tribute to Perry’s writing that I didn’t much care. I got very attached to some of the characters, and was eager for the rest of the series. An excellent read for anyone who likes historical mysteries.
Books read: 125
Pages read: 37,231
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Anne Perry, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt
January 10, 2008 at 12:18 am · Filed under Book Reviews, Historical Fiction, Mystery and Suspense
124. Death of a Stranger by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery) 352 p.
It’s been years since I read A Breach of Promise, but Anne Perry is as talented a writer of historical fiction as I’d remembered. I can’t say William Monk is my favourite of her protagonists, but I like his wife, Hester, quite a bit, and as far as I can tell Anne Perry isn’t capable of writing a bad book. Actually, aside from the fact that I really couldn’t care less about Monk or his mysterious past, I enjoyed Death of a Stranger quite a bit.
When Monk was young, he worked for a while in the railway business before the trial, conviction, and death in prison of his mentor (whom he is convinced was wrongly accused) led to his joining the police. An injury sustained on the job caused amnesia, from which he is still not fully recovered. He knows the most pertinent details about himself, but many incidents from his past life still elude him. When a young woman asks him to look into a railway company, Monk finds many of his memories returning. Unfortunately, the memories he regains seems to point to some wrongdoing on the part of his mentor, or even himself.
Meanwhile, Monk’s wife Hester is running a refuge for prostitutes in Coldbath Square. Trained as a nurse in the Crimea, Hester is able to provide simple medical assistance to women who aren’t able to afford a doctor (and whom a respectable doctor might be reluctant to treat.) When a rich gentleman is found murdered in a local brothel, his family forces the police to come down hard on the area. As business declines, Hester’s patients begin to worry about their livelihoods—and even their lives, since many pimps prove less than understanding about the drop in revenue.
Not a bad novel at all, although my indifference to Monk as a character means this series will never be one of my favourites. I was also a little annoyed by the coincidence of the two plot threads coming together in the end. It’s a common construction in mystery novels with two protagonists who don’t work together to solve cases, and one that I pretty much always dislike. I also thought Monk was an incredible idiot in this book; I saw one incident from the plot coming a mile away, while Monk didn’t recognize it for what it was even after it had happened. Aside from all that, though, it’s still a book well worth reading, even if it isn’t the Anne Perry novel I would recommend.
Books read: 124
Pages read: 36,826
Tags: 2nds Challenge, 50 Book Challenge 2007, Anne Perry, William Monk
January 9, 2008 at 5:58 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Favourite Books, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
123. A Companion to Wolves by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear (Fantasy) 302 p.
I’m almost caught up with reviewing my December reads, and finally, here’s one I can rave about. Ever since I read her first books, Mélusine, I have been madly in love with the way Sarah Monette writes. Four books later, and she has never disappointed me. I was a little wary about A Companion to Wolves, though, because I haven’t had such a great experience with Elizabeth Bear. I’ve made several attempts to enjoy Carnival, but for some reason reading it has been a slog instead of a pleasure. It’s very frustrating, because she seems to be an excellent writer and I have a feeling that if I could get into it I would like it a lot, but I haven’t been able to. Of course, it’s possible that Carnival just isn’t the book for me, because judging by A Companion to Wolves, Elizabeth Bear is my kind of author.
Njall is the sixteen-year-old son and heir of the jarl of Nithogsfjoll when he is unexpectedly chosen to join a wolfheall, a group of fighting men bonded to trellwolves, whose job it is to defend inhabited towns from trolls. Neither Njall nor his father is happy that his duty is to join the pack, in great part because the homosexuality practised in the wolfheall is seen as weak and degrading by ordinary men. As Njall, now called Isolfr, begins to be accepted and to find his place in the pack, the trolls begin to come south in greater numbers than ever before, threatening both Isolfr’s old family and his new one.
I found the set-up of A Companion to Wolves intriguing, since it has the feel of high fantasy to me (partly because it is steeped in Norse myth), but also has a lot in common with other kinds of fantasy. The bond between man and wolf puts me in mind of Mercedes Lackey’s Heralds and their Companions, while the wolfheall reads something like a werewolf pack—although Monette and Bear’s world is far more realistic than most werewolf stories, and far less gag-worthy than anything Ms. Lackey ever wrote. The wolves feel like wild animals, rather than pets, and the structure of the wolfheall is engrossing, springing naturally from the behaviour of an ordinary wolf-pack. I loved the characters, both humans and wolves, and even the villains of the piece, the trolls, had an interesting and cleverly conceived society.
[spoilers]
The only slight quibble I had was with the feminism-heavy ending, which felt out-of-true with the rest of the book, even though I could see how Isolfr’s character development clearly led him to the decision he made. I think it was the emphasis it was given by being at the very end of the book—to me, the story was mostly about Isolfr, and yes, his gradual awakening to the oppression of women in his society is an important part of his life, but it wasn’t necessarily the most important part of it to me, and I’m not entirely convinced it would be for Isolfr, either. Or maybe I should say, I’m intellectually convinced, but I don’t feel it.
But that’s a very, very minor complaint.
[/spoilers]
If you like fantasy, try this book. If you love it even half as much as I do, you’ll be glad you did.
Books read: 123
Pages read: 36,474
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette
January 9, 2008 at 5:14 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
122. A Lick of Frost by Laurell K. Hamilton (Contemporary Fantasy) 274 p.
To my complete lack of surprise, I wasn’t impressed with this newest addition to LKH’s Merry Gentry series. From the very first novel, it had about the same quality as the trashiest of the Anita Blake series, and it’s only gone downhill from there. Why do I keep reading it? One of the great mysteries of the universe.
After suffering several assassination attempts while making a Christmas visit to the Unseelie court, Princess Meredith has cancelled her planned visits to the Goblin mound and the Seelie court. A Seelie noblewoman has accused three of Merry’s guards of rape, and the Seelie want them to answer for it. Merry knows the accusations are false, but how can she prove it to the human authorities her uncle Taranis, the Seelie king, has called in?
This book is actually better than its prequel, Mistral’s Kiss, in that it has some semblance of plot, and Merry spends more time out of bed than in, but unless you, like me, cannot stop yourself from reading LKH’s books even when you know, from previous experience, that they will not be worth your time, don’t bother.
Books read: 122
Pages read: 36,172
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Laurell K. Hamilton, Merry Gentry
January 9, 2008 at 5:03 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Mystery and Suspense, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror
121. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (Contemporary Fantasy, Mystery) 336 p.
Definitely not my favourite Sookie. It’s understandable, though also disappointing, that I haven’t enjoyed the later Sookie novels as much as the earlier ones. I don’t know what it is about vampire novels that seems to require bed-hopping heroines, but I’m not a fan of the trend. Sookie has (thank goodness) not reached the Anita Blake level yet, but unfortunately she may be heading in that direction. It’s not the promiscuity that bothers me, or even necessarily the pre-occupation with the heroine’s love life; I just find it hard to be interested in a guy when I know that there’s a good chance he’ll be replaced by some other romantic interest in the next book. At least Sookie’s still sticking to dating one guy at a time—and there are still many straight male characters who spend time with Sookie and yet are not particularly interested in her. Hopeful signs.
Sookie finally attends the much-discussed vampire summit, in the employ of Sophie-Anne, the vampire queen of Louisiana. The Louisiana vampires hope that Sookie’s mind-reading abilities will give their party an advantage over the vampires from other states. It’s an advantage they desperately need, after the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina in once-powerful New Orleans. Also, during the conference, Sophie-Anne will be on trial for the killings of her husband, the king of Arkansas. It was self-defence, but will the court believe that, when his death makes Sophie-Anne the rightful heir to his territory? Meanwhile, as excited as Sookie is about the conference, she’s less than thrilled to be spending several days cooped up in a hotel with ex-boyfriend Bill and ex-lover Eric. Fortunately, Sookie’s new boyfriend Quinn will also be attending the event….
Books read: 121
Pages read: 35,898
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Charlaine Harris, Sookie Stackhouse
January 9, 2008 at 4:42 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Mystery and Suspense
120. Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (Mystery) 263 p.
After reading, and loving, Grave Surprise and An Ice Cold Grave, I went back and tried this first book in the series. Although I didn’t like it as much as its sequels, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to any mystery fan.
Grave Sight introduces us to Harper Connelly and Tolliver Lang. Courtesy of a lightning strike which also left her with assorted physical problems, Harper can sense nearby corpses. With the help of her stepbrother, Tolliver, she’s managed to parley this obscure talent into a paying business. Travelling around the US, they are called in by families or police when more traditional efforts have failed. In this case, it’s up to Harper to find the body of a teenager believed to be dead. When she does, she also finds some discrepancies between the official version of the case and the evidence of her own “sixth sense”. Unsurprisingly, there’s at least one person in the small Southern town who doesn’t want what was assumed to be a murder-suicide to be re-classed—and re-investigated—as a double murder.
Books read: 120
Pages read: 35,562
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Charlaine Harris, Harper Connelly
January 1, 2008 at 12:58 pm · Filed under Book Reviews, Mystery and Suspense
119. An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris (Mystery) 280 p.
I continued to enjoy Charlaine Harris’s newest protagonist in this sequel to Grave Surprise. I like Harper Connelly quite a bit, and the mysteries she solves are actually very interesting. I think that’s why I like her (and Lily Bard) better than Sookie Stackhouse—the crimes they investigate are ones I actually care about, which isn’t the case with Sookie, as much fun as I have reading about her.
In An Ice Cold Grave, Harper and Tolliver go to a small Southern town on a case. Harper has been hired in the hope that she might find a number of bodies. Quite a few teenage boys have gone missing over several years, and the new police chief is beginning to suspect that they might not all be runways, as was initially assumed. Harper finds the bodies—and once again, the difficulty the police have in believing Harper’s abilities lead to an extended stay in a town with a killer on the loose.
Books read: 119
Pages read: 35,299
Tags: 50 Book Challenge 2007, Charlaine Harris, Harper Connelly
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