seeking flight's 100 in 2010

And here we go again! Library Thing certainly expanded my reading horizons in 2009, and I'm looking forward to another year of good recommendations, and good reading. Happy New Year and happy reading all!

01. Second Chance by Jane Green (01/01/2010)

Light readable chick lit about a group of school friends reunited after 20 years, when one of their number dies.

02. Inkspell by Cornelia Funke (11/01/2010)

03. Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke (21/01/2010)

Enjoyable young adult adventure books, parts two and three of a trilogy that sees characters from the 'real world' read into a fictional adventure story, and interacting with the characters from that book, the writer of the original story, and other writers who now wish to shape events in this new world.

The books have an additional dimension in that they're also about writing, and they use many of the genre cliches in a self-aware and sometimes even analytical way. I found the story itself a little long and drawn out - and I'm never sure whether to attribute that to a book or the time and place in which I read it. But I did enjoy the premise and much of its execution. The little quotes and excerpts from other books that open each chapter were, as with Inkheart, one of the highlights of these books for me.

Oh, I did like Inkheart - I must track down the sequels!

Hi wookiebender - it took me a year to track them down, but I was pleased that I finally did!!

04. A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz (26/01/10)

I enjoyed this unusual story, with its dysfunctional but interesting characters, more than I had expected to. I guess I owe my real-life book club a vote of thanks, because I doubt I would ever have picked this up if it wasn’t on our schedule for January.

Terry Dean is the quintessential Australian hero, iconic as Ned Kelly. Martin Dean is his brother, despised by the Australian populace almost as much as Terry is loved. Their bizarre story is told by Jasper Dean, nephew of Terry, and son of Martin.

Martin self-identifies as a philosopher – and his ideas and aphorisms range from witty and clever insights into human nature to raging tirades of insanity. Jasper has a troubled relationship with his father – fearing to find out that they are more similar than he wants to admit (perhaps the origin of the novel’s title) ...

Interesting observations about human nature, relationships, and the subjectivity and unreliability of memory and narrative made me feel that this had been worth reading, despite the somewhat long-winded nature of the story itself.

05. One Day by David Nicholls (31/01/10)

I was originally attracted to this novel because I’d heard of its interesting structure – it tells the story of the relationship between Dexter and Emma by recounting the events of one day in each year, the 15th of July, from the first night they spend together after their graduation, in 1988, for a span of 20 years, until the present, 15 July 2007.

I found myself forgetting the premise while reading, and just enjoying the story, which is perhaps a good indicator that I found this a story well told. It was interesting the way in which key events in the lives of the protagonists took place ‘off canvas’, and were alluded to only in passing when one or the other of them remembered them on the day in question.

I had thought that this would be nothing more than a pleasant light read, but found some of the observations about life and relationships quite profound and hard-hitting. I was challenged by some, and laughed out loud at others.

It was nothing like I’d expected, but nevertheless a very enjoyable (and perhaps also sobering) read about the gap between what we hope to achieve with our lives, and the places we end up ...

06. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (02/02/10)

I can’t say definitively whether I’ve read this before or not, but I did enjoy the read. It’s interesting reading books set in a different time and place, and seeing the sorts of dilemmas faced by characters in that era – unfamiliar in some ways, and yet universal in others.

I’m not sure that I always agree with Jane’s thoughts and actions, but I enjoyed the way in which her character, her thought processes, and the dilemmas she faced were portrayed. I couldn’t help but admire her strength of character and determination; and her gentle yet unyielding nature.

In a way, you could argue that the story is an account of Jane facing many tests (and triumphs) before she is finally able to find true happiness in love. Does this make it a morality tale?

If you enjoyed Jane Eyre you might also like Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. It tells the untold story behind Mr. Rochester and the other woman. I read it for a class that I took but I quite enjoyed it.

Thanks meags222 - I'd never heard of Wide Sargasso Sea, but will keep a look out for it.

I've always been a little wary of books that claimed to be a prequel or a sequel to a classic, but from the reviews I've just skimmed, it sounds like this one does manage to complement the original rather well.

First off, yay to you enjoying A Fraction of the Whole! I really like it when I read it. Second, Jane Eyre as morality tale? Hmmm... I've never thought about it that way. Yes, probably.

I think it's really interesting that you described Jane as having a "gentle yet unyielding nature". She certainly is unyielding, but I'm not sure I've ever thought of her before as "gentle". She's always struck me as having a stormy, passionate nature. It's more obvious when she's a child, but even as an adult it seems to me that her gentleness may be an act, put on because she knows that it is necessary to keep her in a job (and, therefore, alive). That scene in the garden, with Rochester, where she tells him off and then claims her equality with him, for example. Anyway, sorry for rambling on your thread. JE is one of my top three favoritest books ever, and I tend to get carried away talking about it.

I second the suggestion to read Wide Sargasso Sea. It doesn't read as a prequel at all - if you hadn't read Jane Eyre, you'd never know WSS was inspired by it at all.

Hi jfetting - thanks for dropping by and for your comments on Jane.

I too saw her as passionate. On reflection gentle may not have been the right word - I like the way you describe her, passion constrained by necessity. So much seems to bubble under the surface, and I did enjoy the rare scenes where she actually speaks her mind freely.

I like your comment about the gentleness being an act or a mask - this seems to come through in a number of places in the text. This got me thinking again about A Fraction of the Whole and the comments in there about the masks that we wear to survive.

There's a lot to discuss and ponder in Jane Eyre - thanks for the food for thought.

07. Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop (07/02/10)

This is the first of the Black Jewels fantasy trilogy that tells of the prophesised coming of a young girl (Jaenelle) with powers beyond anything the protagonists have seen so far.

This is a world where women rule, while men protect and serve. Dorothea is the evil queen who has enslaved or purged all of the strong men and women capable of opposing her; and cowed the weak into becoming her own tools of terror – _targeting their own anger and fear at those still weaker than they ...

Three men come to know and love the young girl, Janelle, and to offer her training and protection. But in a world where they find it difficult even to trust each other, how well will they be able to protect her from the darkness that has taken over their world?

I found this an enjoyable read, although initially taken aback by some particularly graphic incidents of violence, and particularly sexual violence, that may mean that these books are not everyone’s cup of tea.

Ultimately, what made this work for me was that I cared about the characters and what happened to them, loved the way in which they relationships between them were depicted, and enjoyed the thought that had gone into the building of this world.

08. See Naples and Die by Penelope Green (08/02/10)

I really struggled to get into this at first. I persevered because the ground covered reminded me of how much I enjoy a good travel book – anecdotes and conversations with a range of different people that capture the flavour of a city, and depict something of the life of the expat and the expat community. And yet the book just didn’t seem to capture my interest until almost the last third, and even then I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Green’s earlier book describing her time in Rome (When in Rome) ...

09. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith (09/02/10)

It’s the incongruity of this combination that amused me the most, and made this an enjoyable light read - with the added benefit of the opportunity to re-read most of the original novel. It’s perhaps recommended for the subset of Pride and Prejudice fans who might also enjoy a good zombie novel - although I know even there tastes have varied, and some have enjoyed this more than others (who have perhaps wanted more diversions from the original story).

I'm sorry See Naples and Die didn't live up to the expectations generated by When in Rome. I rather enjoyed Rome, it was a fun romp. (And a nice change from a lot of travel literature which seems to just be a chance to whinge about how it's all different from home. Which would have been the point of travelling, I would have thought.)

I've got Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters on Mt TBR. Can't say I was a huge fan of Zombies (too puerile at times), but I'm still a big fan of the whole concept. And Jane Austen.

Hi wookiebender,

I also enjoyed When in Rome, which I read around the same time as The promise: An Italian Romance. From memory, this was another interesting take on the Aussie in Rome. So I had higher expectations of See Naples and Die. I agree with you on the subject of travelling - why go half way around the world expecting things to be exactly the same as they are here, or whingeing when they're not?

I'm a bit wary of trying Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters (and are there now others in the series as well?). This feels a bit like a gimmick that could get old quite quickly - and Austen is so well worth reading in her pure unadulterated form! But I'll keep an eye on your thread with interest for your thoughts if you do get around to reading it.

10. After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell (18/02/10)

Alice mysteriously and abruptly returns home to London from Edinburgh, only an hour or so after she arrives. After returning to London, she is hit by a car, and left in a coma. Is it possible that she deliberately stepped out in front of the car? What was it that shocked her so much in Edinburgh?

I really didn’t think much of this as I was reading it. The narrative jumps from one character to another, from one perspective to another, from first person to third person and back again, as we flash back to various events in the lives of Alice, her mother, and grandmother. I didn’t really engage with or enjoy reading about any of the characters or any part of their stories. Many of the events seemed like random incidents with little connection to each other, significance, or originality in terms of plot or theme.

With hindsight, the gradual unfolding of the story is in some ways rather nice. There is a sense of suspense that builds up to some (perhaps predictable) revelations, and Alice is a quirky character who occasionally shares an insight or a perspective on people or life that I did enjoy.

Perhaps most importantly, life often is a string of disjointed events, and it’s up to each of us to come up with our own connecting narratives.

So maybe my criticism is overly harsh, but I still felt as if this book just didn’t really do much for me at all.

11. The Triumph of the Airheads and the Retreat from Commonsense by Shelley Gare (21/02/10)

This book was a must-read for me ever since I heard its title, and it didn’t disappoint.

In her foreward, Shelley Gare describes our age as one “where vacuity is not just celebrated, it is poured down our throats”. She goes on to a number of illustrations in this book of the way in which “airheads” have triumphed in our society, both in Australia and internationally, and the consequences of this social shift.

Gare synthesises a number of disconcerting social trends rather well in this very readable book, and paints a rather disturbing (but scarily recognisable) portrait of the way our world is today. Written before the current Global Financial Crisis, but quite prescient ...

There's at least some overlap between this and Frank Furedi's Therapy Culture: cultivating vulnerability in an uncertain age, another dissection of the world of today and its social attitudes that I very much enjoyed.

12. Exiles and emigrants: Epic journeys to Australia in the Victorian Era (22/02/10)

The National Gallery of Victoria's 'Exiles and Emigrants' exhibition of 2006 is one of my favourite art exhibitions, and the catalogue offers some interesting context to the paintings as well as some fascinating insights into one of the major trends of world history in the 1800s. It whetted my appetite to read further on this subject.

13. Brothers and Sisters, edited by Charlotte Wood (27/02/10)

I very much enjoyed this Australian collection of short stories about sibling relationships. The diversity of stories in the collection was one of its greatest strengths for me. They encompassed a whole range of relationships, and spoke to a lot of the universal dimensions of such relationships, coming together as a coherent and enjoyable whole ...

14. The shapechanger's wife by Sharon Shinn (05/03/10)

Quite a nice little story about a magician’s apprentice, the secret he discovers in the magician's household, and his attempt to put things right. A pleasant enough read, not particularly memorable.

15. Mission of Honor by David Weber (e-arc) (07/03/10)

For me, one of the strengths of the earlier books in this series (the sheer scale of the canvas on which Weber is painting) becomes something of a weakness in these later books. I would rather have focused down on the stories of a few key characters in this story, and their emotional arcs.

There were glimmers of the old Weber in this installment, and some really enjoyable scenes, and I enjoyed this overall and will be eagerly awaiting and devouring the e-arc of the next volume (typos notwithstanding) as soon as is comes out. But I still feel as if these later books lack some of the things that I enjoyed so much in the earlier ones ...

16. Making Delegation Happen by Robert Burns (10/03/10)

Simple but useful and practical advice about what I’m considering an increasingly essential skill in the workplace, with useful reinforcement of what many readers already know and tips about how to do it better.

seekingflight I have had Brothers and Sisters on my tbr list for some time. I have been curious about it - I think I read a review in the weekend paper - but haven't come across anyone else who has read it yet. So after reading your thoughts on it, I will now be looking for it at the library.

Hey judylou - look forward to hearing what you think of it!

17. The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay (14/03/10)

Historical fantasy that conjures up an alternate world with resonances of Celtic, Anglo Saxon and Norse cultures, on the cusp of major changes. The premise intrigued me. Although I found it hard to get into, I was increasingly glad that I’d persevered with the story as I got further through it. One of the things that I liked was the way in which Kay was aware of – and played with to sometimes good effect – storytelling conventions ...

18. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothruss (27/03/10)

This is the first in a new fantasy trilogy, and suffers a little bit because of this. It is, as many reviewers have said here already, a long-winded prologue to a story that appears promising. It incorporates a number of the clichés that are so rife in this genre. And yet the length allows us to get a sense of the narrator, Kvothe, and to see him as more than simply the precocious boy genius who he would appear in a story lacking this depth and detail. He’s allowed to make mistakes, be young and impetuous, and make a fool of himself, and I found this somewhat refreshing ...

Ultimately, the final verdict on the series will depend on the second and third books, but I enjoyed this despite the potential criticisms outlined above, and am cautiously optimistic.

I've not read The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavreil Kay, but I did read Tigana last year and loved it. I'm eager to try something else by him, but not sure what.

I agree with your assessment of The Name of the Wind. I'll be reading the second in the series to see how it goes. I think it comes out this summer.

Hi Lorie,

Tigana is next up on my reading list, and after seeing a number of favourable comments about it here on LT, I'm really looking forward to it. I think I'd be keen to read more of his work too - will have to see what else they have at the library when I take these two back. I'll also be in the queue for the sequel to The Name of the Wind when its out!

19. Exit Strategy by Kelley Armstrong (28/03/10)

Re-read - enjoyable light reading about an assassin on the trail of a serial killer.

20. Beloved by Toni Morrison (03/04/2010)

Horrific, unsettling, powerful, and thought-provoking. This demanded more (in terms of attention and effort) from the reader than my usual fare, but was worth persevering with. I’m not going to say much about it now – I’m still processing my reactions.

21. New York by Edward Rutherfurd (09/04/2010)

Historical fiction that takes the city of New York itself (and the stories of a small sample of its inhabitants) as its subject. I have mixed feelings about Rutherfurd’s books. I love the broad sweeping historical canvases, and I love the way Rutherfurd focuses on a small number of families through the ages so that you have an entry point that makes each of the particular eras accessible. I suppose I find the individual stories of each era vary in the extent to which they appeal and hold my interest, and perhaps this is to an extent inevitable. Not a bad book, it’s just that with such a fascinating and promising premise and structure, I couldn’t help being a little disappointed with the end result.

Lots of interesting little titbits of historical knowledge throughout.

Lots of catching up to do here!

These next two books were both great reads (although I found The Shining disappointing in one respect) and I hope to add more detailed reviews here later.

22. Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay (20/04/10)

23. The Shining by Stephen King (24/04/10)

24. Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris (26/04/10)

25. Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (29/04/10)

26. Club Dead by Charlaine Harris (01/05/10)

Not much to say about these books that hasn't already been said. I enjoyed them for what they were - pleasant escapism.

27. Roadtesting Happiness by Sophie Scott (05/05/10)

28. Soulless by Gail Carriger (09/05/10)

29. Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris (25/05/10)

30. Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris (26/05/10)

31. An Ice Cold Grave by Charlaine Harris (27/05/10)

Good holiday reading - ideal for a long plane flight.

Enjoyed the following Canadian-themed reading (with a particular focus on L M Montgomery) while travelling in the Maritime Provinces:

32. Emily Climbs by LM Montgomery (02/06/10)

33. Maud: The Life of LM Montgomery by Harry Bruce (03/06/10)

34. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery (03/06/10)

35. The saga of the Bluenose by Ernest Fraser Robinson (09/06/10)

36. The Wheel of Things: A Biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery by Mollie Gillen (11/06/10)

37. The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery (Volume 1, 1889-1910) edited by Mary Rubio & Elizabeth Waterston (12/06/10)

And enjoyed the following light reading, and continuation of the LM Montgomery theme, on the plane home, and on return to Australia:

38. A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold (13/06/10)
One of my favourite authors for good old thought-provoking comfort reading and re-reading, on multiple re-reads, this has never yet disappointed.

39. Emily of New Moon by LM Montgomery (15/06/10)
Finished out of sequence, this is the first of the three Emily books. I enjoyed the second and third books of this series more than the first this time around, and felt like I was rediscovering a dear old childhood friend.

40. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong (17/06/10)
Readable and pleasant enough young adult fiction.

41. Emily's Quest by LM Montgomery (19/06/10)
Lovely to re-discover this old childhood favourite. It's said that the Emily books are somewhat autobiographical, and more closely resemble LM Montgomery's own life than the Anne books. Reading this shortly after excerpts of Montomery's own journals, it's interesting to recognise certain (occasional) chunks of Emily's journal which appear to be taken from here almost verbatim.

42. Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs (21/06/10)
I'm enjoying this paranormal series more than most - good character and relationship building, although still relatively light.

43. Grave Secret by Charlaine Harris (24/06/10)

44. Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (28/06/10)
Thematically interesting novel about a woman who seems ordinary enough, and yet acts with an apparent 'goodness' that seems extraordinary. The novel raises questions about what it means to be 'good', and whether this can ever really be separated from selfishness and self-interest, and shows quite powerfully some of the uglier thoughts that can be hidden behind supposedly 'noble' acts. I found this part of the story quite thought-provoking, confronting and worthwhile.

Overall, however, I was bored by the story - which focused too much (for my liking) on the trivial day to day interactions of the characters.

This would in some ways make a great companion to Nick Hornby's How to Be Good, which deals with similar themes, although I personally found the Hornby book to be more my cup of tea.

45. Dead to the World by Charlaine Harris (30/06/10)

46. Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris (02/07/10)

47. Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris (04/07/10)

48. All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris (07/07/10)

And with that I'm up to date for the moment.

49. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (10/07/10)
With all the publicity surrounding this book, there's probably not much left to say. And yet, I was surprised to find this one of the most gripping books I've read this year, despite the inclusion of a large number of passages that I would typically have considered banal in their level of detail.

I'm not typically a reader of crime/ mystery/ thrillers, and perhaps that's one of the reasons that I devoured this book. (Also supporting evidence for my theorem that the best books transcend genre preferences/ prejudices.)

I was a bit perturbed by the way in which the book seemed to be pitched as socially conscious (in purporting to be shocked by the prevalence of violence against women etc), and yet contained a number of graphic depictions of violence against women, and thereby seemed to profit in a sense from the very tastes that it was supposedly condemning.

The actions and decisions of many of the characters in the last third or so of the book really do raise a number of interesting social and ethical/ moral dilemmas, which I found one of the best parts of the book for me.

Given all of the hype, I hadn't expected to enjoy this one nearly as much as I did ...

On a bit of a roll at the moment. I really enjoyed these next two books also. Both were also brought to my attention through recommendations in various places on LT.

The gradual unfolding of both stories was one of the things that I enjoyed most about these books, though, so I'm not going to say much below, perhaps until I've processed these further.

50. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (13/07/10)

51. On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan (14/07/10)

I also really liked Doomsday Book when I read it last year. Connie Willis has a new one out called Blackout and it features the Oxford time travellers as well. I liked it evern more than Doomsday Book, but it ends on a cliffhanger with the next book due out in another couple of months I think.

Doomsday Book is one of my all-time fun favourites! Such an excellent, gripping read. I've enjoyed other Connie Willis novels, but not to that extent.

I'm hanging out for Blackout and it's sequel - coming out in September I think. And since I'm allowing myself to buy books again in September, I think I know what two books are first on my to-be-bought list. ;)

(Edited to fix touchstones, and they've changed the way touchstones work on edit! Funky, if slightly confusing if one wanted to *change* the touchstone.)

Did you get any sleep at all on the flight? You got through an awful lot of books:)

You have been reading some good books too. I have enjoyed the first couple of Sookie Stackhouse books and have the Larsson books on my mp3 ready for a holiday we start next week.

I have never read anything by Willis, but her name keeps coming up. I will have to have a look at her work soon.

Oh, thanks Lorie and wookiebender. I love it when you discover a new author/ series just before a long-awaited sequel comes out. I'll have to look out for Blackout and All Clear.

And have a great holiday Judy!

52. Personal Demon by Kelley Armstrong (16/07/10)
Enough plot sandwiched between the obligatory gratuitous sex scenes to make this a relatively enjoyable light read.

53. Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber (21/07/10)
Predictable and long-winded, but still quite interesting, moving and thought-provoking in parts. Humanity has been virtually wiped out by a relentless alien race, who have detected and destroyed every offshoot colony by their emissions. So a new colony is established, complete with a new religion, the tenets of which strictly prohibit any form of technological innovation. The founders of the colony who disagreed with this approach have an ace up their sleeves, but what can Nimue (Merlin), our protagonist, do in the face of a society built from the ground up on these beliefs?

This certainly wouldn't appeal to everyone, but I liked thinking about the questions that it raised for me. How do you fight a religion that has been developed only as a means of social control? To what extent can these deeply held beliefs be shifted, and with what consequences? How can you free people who don’t realise that they’re in chains?

I'm intrigued enough to continue the series ...

54. From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris (25/07/10)

55. The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson (28/07/10)
I enjoyed this - found it very gripping and readable - although not quite as much as the first in the series.

56. Passage by Connie Willis (01/08/10)
Couldn't find Blackout at my local library, after enjoying Doomsday Book, but they had this one instead so I thought I'd try it.

In some ways this is quite a strange book (the subject matter is near death experiences), and I very much enjoyed the fact that I had no idea where it was going. (Although that always scares me as well, because I'm frightened that if the end doesn't work for me, it will ruin my enjoyment of the whole story.)

Overall I quite enjoyed this, although not as much as Doomsday Book. Still, I liked the characters and spent a pleasant and suspenseful time engaged in this world.

Just found your thread! Lots of books in common that we both enjoy!

Oops - I can't believe it's been three months since I last updated this. I suppose that's what happens when you move half way across the world to take up further study.

Am settling in well and loving the course (MA Sociological Research), so it's now time to catch up on some of this reading!

57. Under the Dome by Stephen King (07/08/10)
Given some of the reviews of this I've read on librarything, I went in with lower expectations, and perhaps that's partly why I enjoyed it as much as I did.

The story was permeated with Stephen King’s trademark sense of ominousness, pretty much from its first few pages. The trajectories of many of the characters were quite predictable, and it reminded me to a large extent of The Stand.

And yet this resonated with me, as a tale of the capacity for good and evil present in every one of us (the way in which all of us might be both the ‘doers’ and the ‘done to’ was a challenge that worked surprisingly well for me), and the way in which a crisis serves to highlight these tendencies.

It may have been formulaic and rather long-winded in its treatment of this theme, but perhaps the formula itself is just one that works particularly well for me.

58. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer (09/08/10)
No strong impression of this one - it just didn't really do anything for me.

59. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson (11/08/10)
I cared enough about what was going to happen in the end enough to continue reading, but didn’t follow this with nearly the same level of interest that I started the series. This installment just seemed to lack some of the moral conundrums, sense of tension and novelty that made the first of this series so interesting to me.

60. Greybeard by Brian Aldiss (13/08/10)
I read some favourable reviews of other books by Aldiss some time ago on librarything, but this was the only one available in my local library.

For me this post-apocalyptic novel was an interesting read, very interesting in parts, but ultimately not completely satisfying.

One of the themes that did interest me concerned the occasional ambivalent musings of some of the characters that perhaps life post-apocalypse was richer and more vibrant that the stagnant shallow materialism by which most people lived their lives pre-apocalypse, and that perhaps this was what society needed. I could never actually accept this premise, but it did challenge me to think about the problems of the world in which we live today.

61. Winter Journey by Diane Armstrong (16/08/10)
A sobering story about the human capacity for cruelty and inhumanity. Forensic dentist Halina Shore returns to the Poland of her birth to investigate a war crime, the burning of a barn full of Jews in German occupied Nowa Kalwari in 1941. At the same time, she learns things she never suspected about her own past. There were a few too many coincidences for me to really buy into the story, in one sense. But it’s a scarily realistic (and perhaps at times even somewhat sympathetic) exploration of the ways in which the townsfolk tried to deal with the legacy of an atrocity that took place in their midst, and the possibility that it might have been perpetrated by their own.

62. The Messenger by Marcus Zuzak (20/08/10)
I quite liked this – I think it captured quite well the sense of life being a smorgasbord of a wide range of experiences. Ed the 19-year old cabdriver feels as if he perhaps should be doing an elusive “something more” with his life, yet isn’t sure what that might be. He starts finding mysterious playing cards with messages on them, and changing the lives of strangers, the people in his life, and his own life, by engaging with the community in which he lives, in ways which are sometimes challenging and confronting, sometimes amusing and rewarding, and always authentic, vulnerable, and rewarding.

63. Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold (20/08/10)
It’s so exciting to read a new book in a favourite series, and find the characters and writing are just as enjoyable as you remember them. Cryoburn won’t quite live up to Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign as my favourites in this series, but it was a much savoured new instalment from a favourite author.

64. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway (23/08/10)
Sarajevo is a city under siege. Arrow is a sniper asked to protect a cellist who has been playing Albioni’s Adagio every day at 4pm, once for each of the 22 people to die in a recent mortar attack on a bakery. Other protagonists are simply trying to survive, in a world where getting bread and water for their families means risking their lives.

This story was unsettling and distressing in its portrayal of the way in which ordinary lives can be turned upside down like this. For me it was even more unsettling in the way in which it suggested that this abnormality itself can come to feel routine, and routine life before the war can come to feel like simply a dream or fantasy ...

65. The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzak (26/08/10)
I had heard a lot of very positive things about this novel, and at first I was quite resistant – the narrative seemed overly simplistic and a bit too self-consciously ‘clever’. Part way through, though, I found myself drawn in, in spite of myself. I found that I really started caring about the characters, and appreciating Zuzak's ‘light’ touch in narrating one of the many terrible tragedies humanity has shown itself capable of. I loved the theme revolving around the power of words, and found it quite appropriate to assessing this particular era in history. Another saddening but worthwhile read.

66. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (28/08/10)
Thanks to meags222 and jfetting for this recommendation - which I did finally get around to reading.

There was a lot that I liked in this book – the well-drawn natural and political environment (Jamaica and Dominica during the 1830s, after the emancipation of slaves), the perhaps deliberate ambiguity about characters’ actions and motivations, and most of all, the attempt to give a voice and a history to the ‘mad woman in the attic’ of Jane Eyre. She comes across somewhat more sympathetically to me than the unnamed husband (Rochester) in this telling of her story, and I particularly liked the fragmented and confused way in which the last (short) third of the book was told; the events of Jane Eyre from her perspective.

Could Rochester have done differently, in the hostile environment in which he found himself, for both his own self and his wife? Perhaps it's a reflection of my own idiosyncratic interpretation, but this was the insistent question I was left to ponder after finishing this novel.

67. Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham (31/08/10)
A good Australian take on World War I – covering a lot of what you read about in the history books, and a lot you don’t, told from the contemporary perspective of Patrick trying to find out what happened to his grandfather during the latter years of the war.

One of the most affecting pieces of the story for me was the way in which the war was depicted as impacting upon relationships, and the difficulty young couples, perhaps hastily married and unable to spend much time together pre-deployment, had in communicating in an environment that seemed to place so much value on protecting each other from any negative thoughts or experiences.

(I'm not sure how much of this is the author's interpretation, and how much might be realistic depiction of this period in history, but it was interesting pondering ...)

68. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (13/09/10)
I started reading this with great anticipation, but was bitterly disappointed by this finale to what started out as a promising series. I described it immediately after finishing it (perhaps overly harshly) as "a poorly planned hodge-podge of superficiality and mediocrity". There were several interesting plot strands and thematic strands that were worked into this story, and had Collins focused on a couple of these and developed them more fully, exploring their implications for our central characters, and the emotional journeys made by the characters -- especially as events worked to their resolution and decisions had to be made, and in the aftermath of these events/ decisions -- I think this would have been a story much more to my liking.

Maybe this will appeal to me more on re-reading, and maybe I wouldn't feel so critical if I hadn't gone into this with such high expectations.

69. Persuasion by Jane Austen (14/09/10)
I was surprised to find I didn't enjoy this to the extent that I had anticipated. I do typically enjoy Jane Austen's novels, and this was a re-read that I had been expecting to like more than I did. But perhaps that just speaks to my preoccupation in September with packing boxes for storage and preparing to move overseas, and a re-read of this and Mockingjay when I'm not so distracted would be advisable?

70. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (16/09/10)
I really enjoyed this - although many others in my bookclub did not - the story of the concierge of a Paris building, and an unhappy 12-year-old who lives there.

Yes, the way in which concierge played a part, ‘living down’ to the cliché of her kind, could have been annoying, as a form of 'reverse snobbery', but I found this amusing rather than irritating.

Yes, Paloma, the precocious 12-year old who shares the narration of the story, could have been dismissed as irritating and narcissistic.

Yes, it did feel somewhat pretentious in the beginning.

But I really came to enjoy the insights both of these narrators had to offer on life (especially a diatribe about the importance of correct punctuation, and an ironic take on the way in which a thesis should (not) be written). Moreover, I enjoyed the gradual unfolding of the story of the way in which these two individuals came to influence each other, and the way in which the book has been described as a ‘celebration of the invisible selves’ that we all have.

Perhaps there are people in our own immediate surroundings who might similarly enrich our own lives, were we only to take the trouble to look beyond surface appearances, and risk showing aspects of ourselves typically kept well-hidden through fear that they would not be understood or appreciated?

71. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (18/09/10)
I found this quite an interesting read, comprising two movements of a story that was originally supposed to be five instalments, set in France at the time of World War II. The first instalment is about the evacuation of Paris before the war began, and the second is about a small village occupied by the Germans. There’s a variety of novel perspectives in the book, including, at one point, a cat! I did enjoy this. And I found the comments made on occasion about soldiers returning home from war (on leave) very poignant, and quite reminiscent in some ways of Barbed Wire and Roses.

The epilogue which tells the story of the author and her husband and the increasing difficulties they experienced as Jews in occupied France gave the book a deeper layer of shockingness and horror, I think, as we learnt of the impact of the war on the author herself.

72. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (07/10/10)
It's perhaps appropriate that this was the first book I read after relocating to the UK for a year for study! I loved the premise of this book, in which the Queen stumbles upon a bookmobile on the corner outside Buckingham Palace. She borrows her first book out of a sense of politeness and obligation, but what happens when she then seeks out another, and another? I enjoyed this, but was a little disappointed - I think I'd heard such good things about it that I was expecting more.

73. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer (09/10/10)
Miranda's diary start off with ordinary teenage concerns about her dad’s new girlfriend becoming pregnant. The predicted collision of an asteroid with the moon gets only passing attention, with ordinary life very much in the foreground. The tension builds up in an evocative way, with Miranda's gradual realisation of the momentous nature of what has happened, and the consequences that will follow. There are all the normal teenage conflicts with parents, made more extreme by the worries they’re facing in terms of everyday survival. I enjoyed this post-apocalyptic novel, and many of the images and impressions it conjured up stayed with me after I put it down. I particularly liked the way the protagonist was a normal adolescent, capable of moodiness and teenage tantrums and selfishness, but also generosity and selflessness.

74. The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer (17/10/10)
Here, I can only echo my review of the first book in this "Moon Crash Trilogy" above. This installment changes scene, and focuses on what happens to Alex and his sisters in New York. Again, Alex is a normal teenager, trying to do the best he can in the post-apocalyptic world in which he finds himself. Again, the atmosphere and images of this story were particularly vivid and memorable, and are coming back in graphic detail as I write this review.

75. The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet by Colleen McCullough (20/10/10)
I found this disappointing - a promising beginning that took Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and made her an interesting character, but then degenerated into melodrama. And why does no-one in these re-tellings imagine Elizabeth and Darcy happy?

76. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (22/10/10)
77. The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness (24/10/10)
Very readable young adult fiction, creating an interesting dystopia that forces its characters to make difficult decisions, to try to be true to themselves and each other in an environment of cruelty, uncertainty, betrayal, lies, and dilemmas. This was a LibraryThing discovery - I think I owe thanks to MsMoto and wookiebender particularly for reviews which encouraged me to pick these off the shelves, and I'm looking forward to (hopefully one day) finding the next installment in my local library ...

78. How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (05/11/10)
More young adult fiction, in which Daisy - a troubled teen - is sent by her stepmother from New York to spend time with relatives in rural England. I kind of liked the way the story was told from her perspective, and what she thought and experienced was foregrounded, with a murky and poorly explained war in the background. However, I didn't find as much in this, on this reading, as in the previous two YA series reviewed above.

79. The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon (12/11/10)
Tells the story of two cousins, ‘conventional’ Mariella, and ‘rebellious’ Rosa, at the time of the Crimean war. Rosa wants to change the world, and sets her heart on nursing in the Crimea. When she goes missing, Mariella follows. The story has potential, but disappointed me in its execution.

80. States of Denial by Stanley Cohen (13/11/10)
This is an important and interesting topic, and Cohen writes a very readable account, both accessible and engaging. Yet I was left a little dissatisfied by this litany of theories, empirical research and examplars about the ways in which victims, perpetrators and bystanders, individuals and governments, might deny suffering and atrocities (from famine to genocide). Perhaps I had hoped for more practical suggestions as to what we can do to engage and motivate ourselves and others, to counter denial, and not merely a description (and tacit acceptance) of the problem?

81. Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey (17/11/10)
Enjoyed this - see excellent review by Aerrin99 for further details.

82. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (18/11/10)
Alice falls at the gym and hits her head -- and loses 10 years worth of memories. She thinks she is pregnant with her first child and happily married. I really enjoyed this thought exercise (by an Australian writer) -- if you lost your memories of the last 10 years, what would the 'you' of yesteryear think of your present circumstances, and the decisions you've made in the interim?

83. The Life and Soul of the Party by Mike Gayle (22/11/10)
Previously I've enjoyed (or at least I thought I'd enjoyed) light reads by Mike Gayle. This one, however, I found disappointing. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by describing it as a year in the life of a troubled group of friends, one of whom states at the end of the story that life is okay, so long as you know that someone sometime will be throwing a party somewhere at which you can let your hair down and forget the circumstances of your life. I found the story mediocre anyway, and this 'resolution' really didn't work for me.

84. What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell (24/11/10)
Another young adult book that failed (from my perspective) to live up to its reviews. It's set in the USA post-World War Two, for a start, and yet to me it felt contemporary in tone. Maybe I missed cues, or maybe the atmosphere just wasn't built up sufficiently. A teenager witnesses troubling events, and has to decide what to do with her knowledge.

85. Black Girl/ White Girl by Joyce Carol Oates (26/11/10)
One of those books that when you try to recount the story after reading it seems deeper and more enjoyable than it felt like when you were actually reading it. I’m never sure how to rate books on these occasions ...

15 years after the death of Minette Swift, the ‘black girl’ of the title, 'white girl' Genna recollects the events of the time she spent as Minette’s roommate in the 1970s, and the events that lead to Minette’s death ...

This is as much the story of the relationship between the two girls, as it is the story of Genna’s relationship with her radical left-wing family, and the consequences of her liberal upbringing ...

86. The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo (04/12/10)
One of the most sobering, thought-provoking and thoroughly absorbing books I’ve read all year. Psychology students will know of Zimbardo in the context of the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in the 1970s, where a group of students were randomly assigned to roleplay either students or guards in a mock prison experiment conducted in a basement in the University. The experiment was intended to last for two weeks, but was suspended early because of the extent to which it influenced the behaviour of the guards and the prisoners.

Zimbardo here presents a detailed account of the way in which the experiment unfolded, arguing that it was the situation – and ultimately the system – that shaped this behaviour, and not the characteristics and personalities that the students brought with them into the experiment.

He then broadens his scope to include an analysis of events at Abu Graib, and elsewhere in Iraq, and argues similarly that situational and systemic factors played a crucial role here also.

While acknowledging that individuals should also be considered responsible for their own behaviour, Zimbardo argues that the responsibility does not belong solely to individual ‘bad apples’, but to the situation and system that created them.

He argues that that very few people exposed to such situational and systemic pressures would have the integrity and strength of character to resist them, and that paradoxically our naive belief that we ourselves would never behave in such a way only blunts our ability to remain alert to such dangers -- so that we can act differently when confronted by such pressures.

In his conclusion, Zimbardo changes tack, arguing that if ‘evil’ is an all too human capacity, then perhaps ‘heroism’ is too, and we might similarly be able to create situations and systems in society that inspire people and bring out the best that they are capable of, instead of the worst.

One caveat to this recommendation -- some reviews of this work suggest that it is overly detailed and repetitive. I, however, found it engrossing from start to finish, and count it among my best reads of the year.

Congratulations! Not only for zooming past the 75 book mark, but also for getting your reviews up before the end of the year.

I have so enjoyed your comments on your books this year. I have added quite a few to The List and look forward to seeing what books we will share next year!

Thanks Ronincats and Judylou.

Six more to review before year end - hopefully I'll be able to finish off this thread at least. I didn't quite make it to _target of 100, but more importantly, I did have a very enjoyable year of reading and hope to do the same again next year. I look forward to seeing more of your reads in the New Year also!!

87. Ten Pound Poms by A. James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson (11/12/10)
I seem to be finishing off the year with a few really intriguing non-fiction reads. Australia's multicultural composition is much talked about (with approx 1 in 4 of the population born overseas, and 44% of the population either being born overseas or having at least one parent born overseas), but conversations about immigration to Australia often neglect the largest group of migrants - those from the UK, comprising some 24% of all foreign arrivals to Australia, according to the 2006 census - who experience at least some of the same upheavals and dramas of other immigrants, and yet feature only rarely in our discussions about immigration.

This book tells the story of subsidised migrants from the UK to Australia (from the 1940s to the 1970s), drawing on interviews, letters, diaries, photographs, and written accounts, talking about the plans, expectations, realities, ambivalence, family relationships, identities, and diverse experiences of those who settled in Australia, as well as a sizeable group who subsequently returned to England.

I was particularly fascinated by the accounts of those who Hammerton and Thomson described as 'pioneers of the backpacking generation', whose accounts spoke of 'restlessness', 'itchy feet', a quest to 'find themselves', and other such motifs, which I had assumed to be more contemporary in nature.

A very readable account, that leaves me intrigued and wanting to know more ...

88. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (15/12/10)
I think I owe thanks here to wookiebender and clfisha for intriguing reviews that compelled me to seek this out. I enjoyed the novel structure and the various stories, and trying to trace the relationships between them. Very readable, and quite different. I don't think I loved it quite as much as I had expected to, but I do think its depth would lend itself well to a leisurely re-read. And I wish I'd written this review when it was fresher in my mind.

89. Contemporary Social Evils by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (19/12/10)
An interesting and promising piece of research, involving public consultation and focus groups soliciting people's thoughts on 'contemporary social evils' faced in Britain today. Not surprisingly, key concerns focussed on things like: perceived increases in individualism, selfishness and materialism; declines in community, family, values and responsibility; crime and violence; inequality; and drugs and alcohol. The book reports on the results of this research, and includes commentary by a number of writers.

I had expected to enjoy this more than I did – the subject matter was interesting, but none of the contributors really seemed to make strong arguments backed by empirical evidence, so they struck me as more opinion pieces.

More information can be found at: http://www.jrf.org.uk/socialevils

90. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher (25/12/10)
A powerful young adult book about teen suicide -- not the most cheerful reading for Christmas day, but it was the book I had on the go on the day.

It's the format that made this so powerful for me.

Hannah records 13 tapes describing the events that lead up to her suicide, and the people that she sees as somehow responsible. When the novel starts, Hannah is already dead, and the narrator, Clay, receives a mysterious package of tapes in the mail. We see him listening to the tapes and reacting to them -- hearing about things he only vaguely knew about, knowing that he's powerless to change the end of the story. Hearing both Hannah's voice and Clay's responses starkly highlights the 'if only' at the core of the tragedy of suicide, and yet shows how difficult it can be to act differently without the benefits of hindsight.

91. City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (28/12/10)
Lina and Doon live in an underground city running out of supplies, and rife with corruption. Can they help their community find a way out?

Perhaps I would have liked this young adult novel better if I hadn't read so many teen based dystopia novels recently. This seemed to have too many of the cliches (heroic teenagers uncover a secret and/or are challenged to find a way of saving their community) without the well-developed characters and/or themes that I so much enjoy in other works of this genre (e.g., Tomorrow, when the war began, Exodus, The Hunger Games, The Giver, Life as We Knew it, The Knife of Never Letting Go etc).

92. A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro (30/12/10)
I think hemlokgang's review was one of many that intrigued me about this author and this novel in particular. This is the first Ishiguro novel I've read (although I've enjoyed the film of The Remains of the Day) and it won't be the last.

This is an enigmatic story that moved slowly but evocatively, with speech and narration showing something of the subtlety and indirectness thought to characterise the Japanese.

It paints a portrait of Etsuko, the narrator, a Japanese woman now living in England, reflecting during the visit of one of her daughters on the suicide of her other daughter, and a friendship made with a woman named Sachiko during her time living in Nagasaki.

Some reviewers draw attention to issues such as memory and 'truth', and the 'reliability' or otherwise of Etsuko as a narrator, and these themes are definitely raised by this novel, which allows the reader to fill in many of the gaps in the narrative as s/he chooses.

And that's it for 2010.

Thanks to everyone for some great reading suggestions over the last couple of years, and I look forward to sharing your reading adventures again next year.

Hopefully 2011 will see me completing these reviews far more promptly than has been my wont this year -- at least, that's one of the many new year's resolutions of the day!!

Wow, that was a massive effort, catching up on reviews! Congratulations on getting them all done!

And I'm very glad you liked The Knife of Never Letting Go, it was a very good read (as are the rest of the series). And Cloud Atlas too! A very good reading year, those non-fiction books at the end sound very interesting, I might add them to my wishlist...