I had a pretty good year when it comes down to achieving my reading challenges. I finished 4 books since my last entry on Dec 26. My reviews are below.
Just Finished
"The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie is one of those without either of Christie's famous sleuths, Marple or Poirot. Instead the hero is one Anne Bedingfield. She spent her early life with her father, basically a secretary helping him with his anthropological work.
Anne, during a visit to London after the death of her father, is on hand to observe the death of a man in the subway. Was it murder, suicide, an accident? She discovers a piece of paper in his pocket, which leads her to what she thinks might be a related death at a house near London.
These events begin to involve Anne in a series of events, attempts on her life, etc and a journey to South Africa. Intrepid and seeking adventure, she searches for the mysterious Colonel, finds herself in the company of Colonel Race (Is he Secret Service?) Suzanne, wife of a British civil servant, Sir Eustace, a somewhat lazy rich Englishman on his way to deliver secret documents to the South African government, and the Man in the Brown Suit (is he a murderer or a spy or can she trust him?)
There is romance, adventure, fun and games, stolen diamonds, intrigue and a darn good mystery with, for me at least, a nicely satisfying and surprising ending. I really liked Anne Bedingfield and Suzanne, strong, spunky, independent women and I liked the story a lot. I keep discovering that Agatha Christie does not disappoint. (4 stars)"
"Minus Time: A Novel is the second book I've read by Canadian author Catherine Bush. I enjoyed this as much as Rules of Engagement. Minus Time is an interesting portrait of a nuclear family (to the extreme somewhat).
The story centers around Helen, daughter of Barbara, a Canadian astronaut currently circling the Earth in the space station trying to break the time away record. Her father David, travels the world trying to help people escape and cope with the destruction caused by earthquakes and other disasters. Completing the family is Paul, her brother, who is working on an architecture degree in Montreal.
Helen and Paul travel to Florida to view her mother's launch into space. Interestingly, they don't go to Cape Canaveral but watch it from a distance. They see on the news that a replacement family has been installed in the bleachers to observe the launch.
Helen returns to Toronto, decides to stop attending her university course and takes a job at a health food restaurant and becomes involved with a group of activists who are trying to make the world aware of the sufferings of animals (testing by cosmetic companies, cruel treatment by fast food companies, etc). She keeps her family secret from the friends she makes in the activist group, United Species - kind of a neat name, I think)
The story follows Helen as she tries to cope with her family life; it wanders from the past with Helen and Paul as youngsters and Barbara just starting her training as an astronaut and the stresses it places on the family; and moves back to the present.
All in all it's a very interesting story, well-written and if you're part of the nuclear family generation, there are things that are relatable. It made me look again at my family, with me on the West Coast, one brother on the East Coast, another in the center, and my sister with my father. It makes for a different family dynamic, neither good nor bad, just one that requires differing perspectives. All in all, a very interesting, entertaining, thoughtful story. (4 stars)"
"Ross Poldark is the first book in the Poldark series by British author Winston Graham. I've enjoyed a couple of his books, previously, especially Marnie which was the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock movie. I'd watched the first season of Poldark on PBS a couple of years ago so had decided to give the book a go.
I chose it to read in Dec 2017 as kind of a filler to help meet my reading group challenge for the year. I was fairly sure I'd enjoy it but didn't think it would be a real classic. So much for expectations. It was excellent, a great story and peopled with sympathetic, well-crafted characters.
The first book is set in the 1780s. Ross Poldark has returned from the Revolutionary wars in America, to his family estate, hoping to fulfill a promise to marry Elizabeth Chynoweth. His father has died and Ross is now heir to that estate. He finds, to his chagrin, that his uncle has instead arranged for Elizabeth to marry Ross's cousin, Francis. So that's how the story starts.
Ross must bear this heartbreak and plot a course for his future. He must learn to run his estate, bring it back from disrepair, earn money, all those mundane things.
We find that he is an honorable man who cares for the people who live on the estate. Like many of the landowners in Cornwall, he runs a copper mine and has farmland. He wants to start a new mine and must persuade investors to take part in it.
Specific interesting incidents occur. Jinny, the daughter of one of his tenants, is 'stalked' by another tenant and Ross must sort out that situation. He also discovers a young girl who is being mistreated by her father, a drunk and he brings her to work in his household. Demelza is a wonderful character, bold, independent minded, just a pleasure to read about. Her budding relationship with Ross is one of the highlights of the book. As well, you have Ross's cousin, Verity, who lives at Uncle Charles's estate, who falls in love with a sailing Captain and all that ensues from that.
So many interesting story lines and some wonderful characters and sub-characters. I was taken by this story that I'm now looking forward to moving on to the second book, Demelza. (5 stars)"
"I read [book:Comet in Moominland|7603179] by [author:Tove Jansson|45230] as a year end filler. I had bought the series for my wife for Xmas a few years ago. They were books she'd read as a youngster and had fond memories of.
The series is by Swedish writer Jansson and features wonderful creatures, the Moomins, and their friends. You have Moominmamma, Moominpappa, their son Moomintroll, his friend Sniff, etc. They live in the Moominvalley in the Blue house. Well, you get the idea.
In this book, Moomintroll and Sniff go on a long adventure to see what the comet is that is heading towards Earth. They journey to the Lonely Mountains to the observatory so they can look at the comet through the telescope. Then there is a race against time to get back home and try to save their family from the comet which might crash into Earth. Along the way they pick up a variety of interesting friends, Snufkin, the Snort, the Snort Maiden.
My wife tells me she found this story very scary when she read it as a youngster. I can see why. The ending is quite exciting and scary. The story is very well-written and enjoyable. A nice way to end off 2017. (3 stars)"
2017 Reading Summary
So here are the General Stats.
December 2017 Totals / 2016 2015 2014
Books Read 13 121 / 150 98 105
Pages Read 3,300 44,300 / 45,125 32,500 35,000
Pages Breakdown
< 250 7 56
250 - 350 3 39
351 - 450 2 16
> 450 1 10
Ratings
5 - star 2 13
4 - star 5 58
3 - star 6 47
2 - star 0 3
Gender
Female 7 34
Male 6 87
Genres
Fiction 3 32
Mystery 4 54
Science Fiction 4 29
Non Fiction 1 3
Classics 1 3
Top 3 Books of December (Reviews are found in different entries)
1. C.J. Cherryh - Downbelow Station (5 stars)
2. Winston Graham - Ross Poldark (5 stars)
3. Jasper Fforde - Lost in a Good Book (4 stars)
2018 Reading Challenges
I'll get into the challenges in more details in my next entry. For now these are the first 4 books I'm starting with. I have follow-on books sitting in my bedside night stand.
2018 12 + 4 Reading Challenge (these were selected by members on one my Goodreads groups)
"West Hall, Vermont, has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. the most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter.
Now, in the present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that has weighty consequences when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished. In her search for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked into the historical mystery, she discovers that she's not the only person looking for something they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself."
2018 Individual Challenge - New Series. I plan to get a start at the many new series I've got on my book shelves. I'm starting at 'A' and working up the alphabet, skipping 5 authors each time.
"Six distinguished gentlemen (Ph.D.'s all) and one invited guest dine monthly at New York's elegant Milano restaurant. The Black Widowers, whose number includes the peerless waiter, Henry, have an uncanny ability to elicit from each guest a story that is somehow problematic, unsolved, a mystery - even if the guest is unaware of the problem.
But the Black Widowers, equipped with plenty of erudition and intuition, eagerly tackle the puzzle - until Henry, quietly amassing the facts, delights them all with the answer."
2018 Individual Challenge - Ongoing Series. I plan to work on series that I've already started, either finish or just keep them going. I'm starting at the bottom of the alphabet and working up, skipping 5 authors at a time.
"The final novel in the thrilling Templar trilogy.
On Friday, October, 13, 1307, Sir William St. Clair faces the end of the Temple Order as King Philip of France arrests every Templar in the country, seizing the Order's assets to save himself from bankruptcy. But as their world falls apart, a few brave men undertake the dangerous task of smuggling the legendary Temple Treasure out from under the nose of a greedy and vindictive king.
St. Clair flees to Scotland, where he leads the surviving Templars as they train in secrecy for a return to France. But as the years pass, they come to see that they will never be able to go back and that Order is doomed. In defiance of the enemies who betrayed the Order, St. Clair summons his men to fight as Temple Knights one last time, at Bannockburn, Scotland, in support Robert Bruce, the King of Scots who gave them sanctuary. In the aftermath of that victory, St. Clair leads his men away in search of another legend, the fabled land that lies beyond the Western Ocean."
2018 Individual Challenges - Decades Challenge. I've set this one out as Pre - 1900 and then working each decade from 1900 up to the present. I'm starting with a Pre - 1900 book. Next I'll move up to the current decade, then back down, yada yada. If I can get a fair number read in this challenge, I'll try to read books from different years in each decade.
"Hailed for its sympathetic and accurate rendering of nineteenth-century English pastoral life, Adam Bede was George Eliot's first full-length novel and a bestseller from the moment of publication. Eliot herself called it "a country story - full of the breath of cows and scent of hay." In the early days of the Napoleonic Wars, Adam Bede is hardworking carpenter with enormous physical strength and considerable force of will. But Adam has a single flaw, his blind love of Hetty Sorrel, a vain, shallow dairymaid who spurns Adam but is easily seduced by the local squire. The bitter and tragic consequences of her actions shake the very foundations of their serene rural community."
So there you are, my first 4 books of 2018. I have one other main challenge, that being continuing my enjoyment of the writings of Canadian Authors. When I finish one of the above 4, I'll pick a Canadian story, then start again at the beginning of my challenges. I hope to read 110 books in 2018.
Happy New Year's Eve and best wishes for 2018. See you in the New Year!
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