End of a Great Reading Year

What a year!  I finished 147 books! 

I had a wonderful year reading about World War I - 16 in all. I'm also 1/2 way through my 17th - "Testament of Youth" by Vera Brittain. I'm not picking up another print book until I finish this one. It's excruciatingly beautiful and heartbreaking. I can see why it is considered a classic. A wonderful book my daughter insisted I read. ( I raised a very intelligent daughter)

I definitely proved that I am more comfortable with electronics than I ever thought I'd be. But if listening to audio books is what it takes to keep me healthy and working out three to four times a week, I may become the best read person in town. My totals don't always add up because several books I read in both audio and eye format (either print or Nook/Kindle) but here's the break down:

37 Print
79 Audio
36 E books

118 Fiction (80 mysteries)
27 Non-fiction (16 WWI, 12 Bio or Memoir)

95 came from the library
43 came off my shelves (both wooden, audio or electronic)
29 were ARCs

My Best reads of  the year: Fiction

Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
Light Between the Oceans by M. L. Stedman
Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Pocketful of Names Joe Coomer
Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Best of the my reading year : Non-Fiction
The Beauty and the Sorrow  by Peter Englund
Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard
To end all Wars: A story of Loyalty and Rebellion by Adam Hochschild
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

It was a wonderful year, and I'm looking forward to another good year of reading and other fun activities.  My blogging will be much less frequent in 2013.  Tune in tomorrow morning to see how Tutu plans to spend the New Year.  In the meantime, if you're stopping by, let us know what some of your best reads of the year were.

Review: The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Will Schwalbe's mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in her early 70's. An activist all her life, she embraced a fairly aggressive treatment regimen in an attempt to lengthen the quality days she had left.

Her son Will, recently retired from a publishing job as Editor-in Chief at Hyperion Publishers, often volunteered to accompany her to various doctors appointments and medical procedures during the almost 2 years she lived after her diagnosis.  As they rode buses and subways, and sat in waiting rooms or "treatment booths", they found themselves not only following their life-long habit of reading, but also trading books and discussing their impressions, likes and dislikes of various books.  As they discussed the books, stories of their previous adventures in life became intertwined and personal details were allowed to percolate to the surface.

I chose the book for the book club related subject matter.  In the end however, I discovered a treasure of a tribute to an emancipated woman, a loving mother and a courageous family.  It was heartwarming without being maudlin, and gives the reader a glimpse of a rich and varied reading life that both of them enjoyed.  Even MaryAnn's penchant for always reading the end of the book first, a habit I normally find abhorrent, did not produce a negative feeling toward her.  The appendix gives a complete list of books   the two discussed - as you can see, the range was wide, deep and eclectic.  There were quite a few I had read, and several other that popped right up as candidates for our local book club.  It was an exceptionally good ending to a great reading year and a loving tribute to an incredibly well-read woman.

Title: The End of Your Life Book Club
Author:  Will Schwalbe
Publisher/format: audio from Books on Tape, 9 hrs, 37 min
Narrator: Jeff Harding
Genre: Memoir
Subject: end of life, books
Source: Public library
Why did I read this book now? The subject intrigued me

The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer

Title: The Sins of the Father
Author: Jeffrey Archer
Publisher: St Martin's Press (2012), 352 pages
Genre: Historical fiction
Subject: World War II, family dynamics
Series: Clifton Chronicles
Source: Barnes & Noble (Nook)
Why did I read this book now?  I enjoyed book #1 in the series and wanted to see what happened next.


Sins of the Father is book #2 in this family saga, and picks right up where the first one, Only Time will Tell, left off.  It covers both American and British involvment in World War II, seen from the point of view of aristocrats and working class. It's not great literature, but it is an enjoyable read. I'd put it in the cozy category of family war sagas. Archer has a knack for leaving the reader hanging at the end of each chapter, and then really leaves the reader hanging at the end of the book. It's the only reason I'll get #3, Best Kept Secret, when it comes out because I can't stand not knowing what the answer is to #2.

Not a full review, but there are plenty of them online if you feel you really want one.

Review: Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Title: Fall of Giants
Author: Ken Follett
Narrator: John Lee
Publisher: Books on Tape, audio - 30 hrs, 38 min
Genre: Historical fiction
Subject: World War I and social/political issues of the times
Setting: England, Russia, Germany
Series: Century Trilogy  
Source: purchased from Audible
Why did I read this book now? It was part of my World War I reading challenge.

This was an exceptionally enjoyable read especially since I read it immediately following the George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm biography reviewed yesterday.  After seeing  the war from the perspective of the high rulers,  it was quite a turn-around to read  Follett's story of the era from the perspective of working class participants:  the soldiers who slogged through the mud and trembled in the trenches,  the peasants who starved in the frozen acreage of Mother Russia, the ruthless ne'er-do-wells who used the circumstances to better their own lives while trampling on others, and the mid-level aristocracy who saw their world of privilege crumbling and could do little to stop the disintegration of their way of life in spite of their seemingly heroic efforts.

Follett chooses the coal miners and upper class gentry of Wales to tell Great Britain's story.  He shows us Russia from the point of view of two brothers, disillusioned peasants, who had witnessed the brutal murder of their mother while the Russian aristocracy stood watching stonefaced.  He shows us German and American aide-de-camps working at upper level government  jobs gathering intelligence, trying to shape opinion, and ultimately trying desparately to stop a war before it got started. 

Women characters play large roles in the story, fighting restrictions designed to bind them to men (either fathers, brothers or husbands). From a parlor maid seduced by the master of the household, to an upper-class Englishwoman fighting for peace and women's rights, to war widows, maiden aunts, and de-throned Russian royalty, they all must face changing social mores and paradigms. There are appearances from actual historic figures (e.g., Winston Churchill) as well as a host of fictional personalities who bring the troubles of the era to life.

This is a long book....over a 1000 pages in print, and 30 hours in audio.  Like all of Follett's works, it can get a bit long-winded in parts, but the story is well told, extremely well researched, and ultimately enjoyable.  I especially found the sections on the Russian revolution very enlightening.  Not only did I enjoy the read, I learned a lot about the various factions and causes of the many different aspects of that country's government(s) during those years.

This one was a great way to tie together the other 14 books set around and about World War I which I read throughout the year.  The carnage that mankind can inflict on itself was well documented, and told in chilling detail, but the fictional characters who told their stories (through John Lee's masterful narration in the audio version) kept it interesting and left us wanting to get on with life after the war.  I also purchased the 2nd in the trilogy, which begins  with Hitler's coming to power in 1933.  I hope to read it early in 2013. 

More World War I Reading: George, Nicholas and Wilhelm by Miranda Carter

Title: George, Nicholas, and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I
Author: Miranda Carter
Publisher: Vintage Books, division of Random House, 2009, 498 pages
Alternate format: Audio, Books on Tape, 21 hours, 10 min
Narrator: Rosalyn Landor
Genre: History, biography
Subject: Influence of monarchs who participated in World War I
Setting: Europe, approx 1870-1920
Source: my own book, audio from public library download
Why did I read this book now? It was part of my World War I reading challenge.

Most of my World War I reading this year has been either straight history - the story of the various political chess moves made by the principal governments involved and the often devasting impacts those players set spinning across the world- or historical fiction as told through a variety of genres- romance, mystery, fictional agents.  In this book, Miranda Carter takes an in-depth look at the three nominal rulers of the most powerful entrants into the war arena.  In each case, they emerge as befuddled, impotent, and thoroughly under-educated figure-heads who were unable or unwilling to take steps that may have averted the disaster that was World War I.

In my mind, much of the blame can be laid at the feet of their grandmother and aunt - Queen Victoria, who felt that royalty was sufficient unto itself, needed no education, and was simply there to be obeyed and waited upon.  Unfortunately, many of her subjects disagreed with her.  Victoria's dictates about what was proper dress, behavior, food, language, etc, conspired to ensure that these three men (George and Wilhelm her grandsons, and a cousin married to her grand-daughter) were rigid, unimaginative, severely un-educated, and almost clueless about the social, economic, religious, and labor issues boiling in their respective countries.

This is a fascinating study of the three men whose governments pushed them aside, ignored them, or in Wilhelm's instance, tried to work around his pomposity to win a war that should never have been started.  I have this book in both audio and print formats.  The print book was especially useful for the family trees and photographs and it was wonderful to have the audio to be able to continue "reading" while I was driving, baking cookies, or working out.

And still More WW I - Review: The Light Between Oceans

Title: The Light Between Oceans
Author: M. L. Stedman
Publisher: Scribner (2012)  342 pages
Alternate format: Audio - Simon and Schuster, 10.5 hours
Narrator: Noah Taylor
Genre: Fiction
Subject: Child stealing, guilt
Setting: Lighthouse off western coast of Australia
Source: public library
Why did I read this book now?  I saw reviews, it sounded interesting and it was available at the library.

A stunning read.  Not only is the story compelling, but the setting is luminous and the character development some of the best I've read this year.  Stedman's prose is crystal clear, crisp, and often has the reader gasping at it's beauty.

The story itself is heart-breaking. Tom Sherbourne returns to his native Australia from fighting in World War I where he witnessed and participated in  incredible carnage.  Determined to make up for his part in all the killing, he joins the lightkeeping force, and trains as a lightkeeper.  Eventually, he takes his young and vivacious bride Isabel to Janus Light, 100 miles off the western shore of Australia where they are the only human inhabitants of the island.  As the months, and then years pass, Isabel suffers several miscarriages, and the couple begins to lose faith in their chosen life.

Suddenly a baby washes ashore in a boat....where did the baby come from?  What should Tom do about reporting this to the authorities?  Can they possibly hope to keep the babe for their own?  The story is too deep, phsychologically intense, and ultimately emotionally draining for me to spoil it by telling how it progresses from there.

Stedman's story-telling keeps the reader glued to the book.  His descriptions of the vast ocean scenarios, the loneliness of life on the island, and the weather events are spectacular.  The decisions faced by all the characters involved are morally complex and take the reader on a roller coaster of emotions.  It will be a popular book club discussion choice.  Ultimately, there are no good answers to many of the questions, and no character escapes the angst resulting from decisions made.

One of my best of the year reads.

A Holiday Reading Wish

     copyright 2012 Susan Glover Rizzo, used with permission of the artist.



I could never have found anything more special than this beautiful handmade greeting from one of my LibraryThing.com online friends. Sus lives overseas and sent this to all her friends. She was gracious enough to allow me to "borrow" it from her to help pass on the happiness that reading brings to each of us. I wish each of you a beautiful and blessed Christmas holiday and prosperous and Happy New Year.  I pray that each of you can find beauty and comfort in memories of 2012 and look forward to more wonderous adventures (real and fictional) in 2013.  May your TBR pile be high enough so you never run dry but low enough to keep from tumbling over.

May the blessings of Christmas peace come to all of you, your loved ones, and our entire troubled world.

Monday Mailbox - Christmas Eve

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house recently. Created by Marcia at The Printed Page, Mailbox Monday, now has its own blog. Hosting duties are rotated every month. Suko  at Suko's Notebook is our host for December. Be sure to drop by to see what everyone else got this week.

Last week, I was thrilled to receive a package and note from Henry Holt and Company saying that I had won the Hilary Mantel sweepstakes.  They enclosed a copy of Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies.  I was gobsmacked.  I read Wolf Hall last year, but had borrowed it from the library.  I have Bring up the Bodies as an audio in my personal collection, but I really enjoy having the print copy to refer to if I fall asleep (ok....it happens!) and to verify the spelling of names, look at illustrations etc.  So much fun.

Thank you Henry Holt publishers.  You made this a wonderful Christmas.

Weekend Cooking - Christmas Cookies

These past weeks I've been baking several batches of traditional Christmas cookies and pastries, many from old family recipes. As I get older, and arthritis makes life more interesting, I marvel at how my grandmother used to make our favorite cinnamon raisin buns with no labor saving devices. She did of course, have grand-daughters who were enlisted as they got old enough to crack an egg and roll out dough, but until then, she kneaded, rolled, sliced and baked hundreds of these goodies with only a rolling pin and a knife and spoon.

In my case, I had the advantage of four very helpful tools: the sifting shaker for spreading 10x sugar and cinnamon sugar in an even layer, the gorgeous flat pastry scraper (greatest tool since the gas stove), the pastry brush for spreading melted butter (Nonna used a spoon and it worked ok, but the brush is much more fun), and the heavy duty electric mixer with dough hook.

I just made a batch of Nonna's raisin buns at my mom's yesterday.  She did have a pastry brush,  but she kneaded the dough by hand.  Her 88 year old hands still do a much better job that mine do.  We mixed the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl and spread it by hand.  A metal spatula worked almost as well as my pastry scraper.  In the end, the goodies were just as good, and we had just as much fun.

I almost forgot the other fantastic invention for baking:  PARCHMENT PAPER.  I suspect this has been around for a long time, but no one in my family started using it until just a few years ago.  The amount of time it saves in cleaning up cookie sheets is worth every penny spent.  Mom had not used it before but is now a convert.

So here's some of the goodies we made. I hope yours are just as gorgeous, delicious and fun.  Have a great holiday weekend.

Beth Fish Reads sponsors this weekly meme where we foodies can chat about cookbooks, cooking gadgets, recipes, or anything else gustatory. Be sure to stop over there to find other terrific weekend cooking posts.

Mailbox Monday - December 17th

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house recently. Created by Marcia at The Printed Page, Mailbox Monday, now has its own blog. Hosting duties are rotated every month. Suko  at Suko's Notebook is our host for December. Be sure to drop by to see what everyone else got this week.

The Burgess Boys 
by Elizabeth Strout

Again this week, I only got one new one, but it's another WOW! This was an ARC from the Early Reviewers program at LibraryThing.com.  I love Strout's  writing, and definitely will be leading off the new year with this one.  Here's what the publisher said to tempt me:

Haunted by the freak accident that killed their father when they were children, Jim and Bob Burgess escaped from their Maine hometown of Shirley Falls for New York City as soon as they possibly could. Jim, a sleek, successful corporate lawyer, has belittled his bighearted brother their whole lives, and Bob, a Legal Aid attorney who idolizes Jim, has always taken it in stride. But their long-standing dynamic is upended when their sister, Susan—the Burgess sibling who stayed behind—urgently calls them home. Her lonely teenage son, Zach, has gotten himself into a world of trouble, and Susan desperately needs their help. And so the Burgess brothers return to the landscape of their childhood, where the long-buried tensions that have shaped and shadowed their relationship begin to surface in unexpected ways that will change them forever.

With a rare combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite prose, and remarkable insight into character, Elizabeth Strout has brought to life two deeply human protagonists whose struggles and triumphs will resonate with readers long after they turn the final page. Tender, tough-minded, loving, and deeply illuminating about the ties that bind us to family and home, The Burgess Boys is Elizabeth Strout’s newest and perhaps most astonishing work of literary art.

 

WW I Reading: Singled Out by Virginia Nicholson

Singled Out: How Two Million British Women Survived Without Men After the First World War
Author: Virginia Nicholson
Publisher: Oxford University Press (2008) 328 pages
Subject: women's roles following World War I
Setting: Great Britain after World War I
Genre: Non-fiction, sociology
Why did I read this book now? It was part of my World War I reading challenge
Source: Public Library

As I continue reading about World War I and its after effects, this book seemed like it would be an interesting one.  As the Amazon blurb says:

The First World War deprived Britain of three-quarters of a million soldiers, with as many more incapacitated. In 1919 a generation of women who unquestioningly believed marriage to be their birthright discovered that there were, quite simply, not enough men to go round. The press ran alarming stories about the 'Problem of the Surplus Women - Two Million who can never become Wives ...'. But behind the headlines were thousands of brave, emancipated individuals forced by a tragedy of historic proportions to rethink their entire futures. Tracing their fates, Virginia Nicholson shows how the single woman of the inter-war decades had to stop depending on men for her income, her identity and her happiness. Some just endured, others challenged the conventions, fought the system and found fulfilment. "Singled Out" pays homage to this remarkable generation of women who were changed by war, and in their turn helped change society.

 The  premise was a sound one.  The author is an academic who served as a documentary researcher for BBC television. Her research background glows in this book, but for me it simply pulled me down into a quagmire of tons upon tons of details.  If one story could have made her point, she chose to give us three or four examples.  It was like waiting for a train to pull away from the platform--- it just never developed enough steam to hold my attention.  It often rang of the poor dears in DOWNTON ABBEY who just couldn't quite figure out what to do with all these women.  As a result, I found myself reading the first three or four paragraphs of each section, and then skimming.  I also think because I had already started reading Vera Britain's Testament of Youth where the author was experiencing many of these same issues but reporting them in much more elegant prose that I just couldn't settle into this one.

If you are a detail oriented person who needs lots of reinforcement to prove points, this one is for you.  It's an important work in its thesis, and worth at least a look-see.  It certainly covers an important aspect of how this War changed the way women were regarded and regarded themselves. 

Cutting for Stone: Reading again and again and again....

Cutting for Stone
by Abraham Verghese

This is the fourth time I've read this book, and it has certainly now jumped to the top of my all time favorite list.  Our book club will be discussing this one in January and I couldn't hold myself back from reading and listening to it again.  Both versions are wonderful, and as I read it over the past three weeks, I never once got even the least bit bored.  Here's the link to the original review I wrote in April 2010.  It still says exactly what I'd say today. If you haven't read this one, or you thought you didn't like it when you did, you owe it to yourself to get this one and read it. 

This book is long. It is 18 discs on audio (almost 24 hours of extremely well narrated story read by Sunil Malhotra) and 688 pages in print. It is difficult to do it justice in a review because, although written as a fictional narrative memoir, it is a novel with a spectacular ending that deserves not to be spoiled.

It is a story that is engrossing, exciting, appealing, easy to read and extremely difficult to put down. It is also one that I will want to read again and again. In both its print and its audio versions it is a story not soon to be forgotten. It is simply one of the best books I've ever read.

Review: Faith by Jennifer Haigh

The pedophilia scandal in the Catholic diocese of Boston in the early part of this century is certainly one that is well known by everybody who can read or who has a TV set. Jennifer Haigh uses this setting to present us with a story of a family, the McGanns, steeped in the traditions and superstitions and faith of the Boston Irish Catholics of that period.  Haigh has the daughter Sheila tell the story.  Fr. Art Breen,  the oldest son, is accused of pedophilia by a single mom whom he has befriended.  Mike, the younger brother who had been a cop for awhile, assumes his half brother is guilty.  Their mother refuses to believe the accusations, and although the newspapers jump right in, the church refuses to discuss it, Art refuses to hire a lawyer, and it is Sheila who decides she must determine the truth of what really happened.  It is her quest for the truth that allows us to see how different versions of "Faith" can exist on so many different levels.

This is a book that has many stories:

• There's the Irish Catholic Boston pedophilia story.
• There's the story of priestly vocations - what is it that draws men to this way of life?  How do they live their lives of quiet loneliness?  What kind of training do they get to handle those difficulties?
• There's the family story:  how does the mother relate to her adult children? How does the sister reconcile her feelings for the brothers? What impact does this scandal have on the other brother's marriage?
• There's  passion play of characters in addition to the immediate family.  The accuser, the supposed victim, the various clerics and officials all contribute to the dynamics of belief, guilt, secret-keeping, forgiveness, and redemption that are the story's hallmark. 

I found the device of using the sister to narrate and drive the story a bit confusing at first, but can't imagine a better way to bring all the divergent views and motivations together.  Therese Plummer does a spot-on job as a narrator in  giving us the Boston Catholic viewpoint and accent. This is a story written compassionately, and with great insight into the many aspects of events that happen when such an accusation is flung into the air.  Jennifer Haigh gives us a caring and sensitive look at the Catholic Church and its struggles over the past decades - going back to Vatican II and working forward.  She gives excellent explanations of rituals, traditions, and a way of life that will be familiar to those who have lived it, and understandable to those looking in from the outside.

What she discovers, and what she does with the information is best omitted here to avoid spoilers. It's a remarkable book that treats a very distasteful subject with objectivity, understanding, and empathy, while allowing the reader to process it from his or her own perspective.  Well worth the read.

Title: Faith
Author: Jennifer Haigh
Publisher/Format: Harper Collins Audio, (2011) 10 hrs, 6 mins
Narrator: Therese Plummer
Subject: Pedophilia, Irish Catholicism
Setting: Boston
Genre: Fiction
Why did I read this book now? The audio was available on sale at Audible, and it was a subject that interested me.

Mailbox Monday - Dec 3rd

Only one book in the mailboxes this week, but what fun it is.  I entered and won a contest at Lesa's Book Critiques, one of my all time favorite blogs.  I never fail to stop in there at least 2 or 3 times a week, and I always enter her contests, so it's really fun when I win!  This time I won an ARC of Rhys Bowen's The Twelve Clues of Christmas, a Royal Spyness mystery, just in time for the holidays.

 The Twelve Clues of Christmas

A Royal Spyness mystery

by Rhys Bowen

Here's Lesa's excellent review of the book...  And here's what the publisher has to say:

 On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me—well, actually, my true love, Darcy O’Mara, is spending a feliz navidad tramping around South America. Meanwhile, Mummy is holed up in a tiny village called Tiddleton-under-Lovey with that droll Noel Coward! And I’m snowed in at Castle Rannoch with my bumbling brother, Binky, and sourpuss sister-in-law, Fig.

So it’s a miracle when I contrive to land a position as hostess to a posh holiday party in Tiddleton. The village is like something out of A Christmas Carol! But no sooner have I arrived than a neighborhood nuisance, a fellow named Freddie falls out of a tree, dead…. Dickensian, indeed.

Freddie’s merely a stocking stuffer. On my second day in town, another so-called accident turns up another mincemeat pie—and yet another on my third. The village is buzzing that a recent prison break could have something to do with it… that, or a long-standing witch’s curse. I’m not so sure. But after Darcy shows up beneath the mistletoe, anything could be possible in this wicked wonderland.

I can't wait to settle into this one.  I think it will definitely get me into the holiday mood.

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came into their house recently. Created by Marcia at The Printed Page, Mailbox Monday, now has its own blog. Hosting duties are rotated every month. Gillion at Rose City Reader is our host for December. Be sure to drop by to see what everyone else got this week.

Review: Bad Little Falls by Paul Doiron

Paul Doiron's Mike Bowditch series is a well-researched and rousing set of tales about the Maine warden service. This is the third in the series, and we've now been treated to a view of the Maine woods and wild-life (human and animal) in summer, in autumn hunting season, and now in the dead of winter. We've been to different parts of the state, and met many different characters. And Mike Bowditch still doesn't seem to be able to get control of his temper, his impulsiveness, his rebellion and his propensity for doing exactly what he shouldn't be doing.

The story starts as Mike tries to find a missing man in a snowstorm.  He's been sent to the northern wilds of Maine because he's really ticked off his superiors.  Supposedly this assignment will give him a chance for redemption.The snow scenes in this one are awesome. The tale is well laid out, and the reader has several different red herrings to knock down before figuring out exactly what the mystery is, who the real bad guys are and then who dunnit.

Doiron gives us raw footage, real life, and an anti-hero who is beginning to wear a little thin, at least for this reader. I really almost abandoned this one in the middle when Mike kept making really stupid choices. But I wanted to see how he would handle having his entire life sprayed by a skunk, so I muddled through, and ended up able to label it an enjoyable read. IMHO, it's not pulitzer material, but it certainly has more action, more twists, and more scenery than many of today's mysteries. The sense of place is undoubtedly one of the best features and readers will come away with a good sense of how hard life is in rural Maine in the winter.

I haven't heard whether there are more to come in this series. If there are, let's hope that Warden Bowditch grows up a bit.


Title: Little Bad Falls
Author: Paul Doiron
Publisher/format: MacMillan audio (2012)
Narrator: Henry Leyva
Subject: life of a warden in Maine winter
Setting: Washington County Maine
Series: Mike Bowditch
Why did I read this book now? I enjoyed the first two in the series and wanted to continue it.
Source: public library download