Books from 5th November to 7th December
Books from 6th November to 7th December
Chalet School Books
160. A Future Chalet School Girl / Jane Goes To The Chalet School
162. Joey and Co In Tyrol / Challenge for the Chalet School
164. Jo To the Rescue / The Chalet School Reunion
167. Joey Goes To The Oberland
Joey and Co In Tyrol is a modern re-publishing of the book, published by Girls Gone By publishers, who publish a lot of these kind of books which have been out of print for a long time. As well as the story, it had a bit of history of the series, a bit about Elinor M Brent Dyer, and a good section on some of the mistakes found in the first edition of the book - mostly due to the author! She is known for changing people’s ages / back stories / appearances, and even their names sometimes! This is the second non-abridged Chalet book I’ve read, and the first since I’ve known that most of the Armada paperbacks (which is mainly what I have, apart from one hardback first edition! :D ) have bits cut out, and I could almost tell which bits they would have cut out if it had been the paperback - it had a lot more about smoking than the other books I’ve read, which I assume would have been “normal” when it was written (1950s), but when the books were re-published in the 80s and 90s they would have taken those bits out! I’m looking forward to buying more of the Girls Gone By ones now. I’ve only got two more Chalet School books to buy and I’ve completed the series as well!! Its just a shame that they both seem to be going for excessive prices on ebay and amazon at the moment though.
Other Books
159. A Taste for Death by PD James - PD James books which I haven’t read are getting rarer (after this one I picked up two more books of hers in charity shops and found after a few pages that I’d already read them!) so I really enjoyed this one. Two men are found murdered in a church vestry, one of them is an MP and one a tramp, so they don’t know why they are there and why they were together. I like PD James’ books as they’re usually quite old fashioned - well, that’s probably not the right phrase, set in the 70s and 80s, so to me they’re old fashioned, haha - and they have lots of details about who the people were, who they associated with, and what motives those people might have. The characters in this were all very well written and it kept you guessing as to who might have done it and why.
161. The Book Of Dave by Will Self - I tried really hard to really like this, but although it was good, it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. Half of the book is about a man called Dave who is having a bad breakup with his wife, and their son is caught in the middle of it. He has a bit of a mental breakdown, and during this writes a book about how awful his life is, which he then buries! The other half of the book is set hundreds of years later, where society has totally changed, and they have found this book and worship Dave as if he is a god. I liked the descriptions of their world and how they interpreted what Dave had written - he was a taxi driver so their “hello” greeting became “ware2guv”, in their language. However I did think it was just too long, and got a bit tedious. Which is a shame, as I like Will Self and his other books are really quite good.
163. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman - This is a children’s book but I’m going to include it in my adult book list as it covers quite serious topics! It is set in our world, but the “Crosses” are the ruling group in society, and the “Noughts” are the less privileged minoriyty. Sephy, a Cross with a father who is in the government, and Callum, a Nought whose mother used to work for Sephy’s mother, are great friends, and this book is about how the two groups live together (both well and badly!), how they are both viewed in society, and implications of this for Sephy and Callum. It’s a really well written book as it brings up things about racism and how people are treated that you would never have thought of - for example, plasters being the “wrong” skin colour for some people. Added to that, this book is interesting as the “Crosses” are black, and the “Noughts” are white - and I found it difficult to keep thinking of it that way, as in our (British) society in terms of who is in government etc, it’s the other way round. The people at my book club generally liked it, but thought it was a bit simplistic and explained things a bit too much - but then that is to be expected though, as it is for a younger audience. Highly recommended!
165. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami - This is the novel of the film, and it is really excellent. The film was great too, but the book was excellent as it went into more detail about the background of everything, all about the students involved and why they acted like they did. It had a lot about the students’ emotional responses to their friends being killed, and how they thought about their strategies for the “game” which was really interesting. It’s a bit of a scary concept really, because it really is written quite realisticly, you can almost imagine them doing it for real. But hopefully not!! The only slight problem I had with it (and this is my own fault!) is that I got slightly confused with all the names, but it was only because I wasn’t used to them, not having really read much set in Japan before. It was generally great though, and I’m even tempted now to read the manga of it, although I haven’t read any of that kind of thing before.
166. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller - I did expect this to be chick-lit, but it was worse than I thought. It was about a man and a woman who moved into some kind of retirement complex - although from the way it was written, the woman was way too young to live there - and kind of about how the woman was looking back on her life, and assessing how what she had done in her life had brought her to where she was at that time. Then the second section talked about her earlier life, where she appeared to be some kind of “wild child”, dropping out of school, taking drugs, hanging around with lots of artists etc. It then just didn’t fit that she would become the person she was at the beginning of the book. She just seemed boring and lifeless at the end. Maybe that was the point? But I just didn’t get it really!
168. Zulu Hart by Saul David - Someone bought me this book, and to be honest I’m not sure why - I do like historical fiction, but not really about wars! Though it was about a period which I hadn’t read about before, so it was kind of interesting from that point of view. It follows George, the illegitimate and half Zulu son of a high ranking government person in the 19th century, as he makes his way through his education and early life. He doesn’t know his father, but has been provided money by him to get a good education, and join the army. There he finds discrimination due to his dark skin, and he goes to South Africa to find diamonds, but ends up being in the army again. He then fights in a war against the Zulus. This was kind of interesting as I didn’t really know what had happened in Africa in the 19th century, but the descriptions of war I found a bit boring!
I’m currently reading The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth - before I started reading it I wasn’t sure what it was about and thought it would be just an average thriller, but it’s excellent so far!
So far this year I’ve read 99 adult novels, and 168 books in total - although I’ve been counting 2 books of poetry and two children’s books as one book as they don’t take me long to read, so the actual book total is a bit higher than that! I’m quite pleased overall, even though I haven’t read as many of the "1001 books to read before you die" as I planned! When I move into my new flat I will sort out all my unread books, as I’d forgotten that I had half of them, and I think my goal next year will be to read all of my unread books before buying anymore (unlikely to be kept, but maybe I'll find my lack of money prevents me from buying any books, I hope anyway!!), and then to go to the library and read lots of the 1001 books! Its quite sad but I'm actually really looking forward to having enough room to properly put my books in bookcases, and to have people come round and see them all around the room - I always look at people's books when I go to their houses, and I want people to be able to do that in my house too! :)
Chalet School Books
160. A Future Chalet School Girl / Jane Goes To The Chalet School
162. Joey and Co In Tyrol / Challenge for the Chalet School
164. Jo To the Rescue / The Chalet School Reunion
167. Joey Goes To The Oberland
Joey and Co In Tyrol is a modern re-publishing of the book, published by Girls Gone By publishers, who publish a lot of these kind of books which have been out of print for a long time. As well as the story, it had a bit of history of the series, a bit about Elinor M Brent Dyer, and a good section on some of the mistakes found in the first edition of the book - mostly due to the author! She is known for changing people’s ages / back stories / appearances, and even their names sometimes! This is the second non-abridged Chalet book I’ve read, and the first since I’ve known that most of the Armada paperbacks (which is mainly what I have, apart from one hardback first edition! :D ) have bits cut out, and I could almost tell which bits they would have cut out if it had been the paperback - it had a lot more about smoking than the other books I’ve read, which I assume would have been “normal” when it was written (1950s), but when the books were re-published in the 80s and 90s they would have taken those bits out! I’m looking forward to buying more of the Girls Gone By ones now. I’ve only got two more Chalet School books to buy and I’ve completed the series as well!! Its just a shame that they both seem to be going for excessive prices on ebay and amazon at the moment though.
Other Books
159. A Taste for Death by PD James - PD James books which I haven’t read are getting rarer (after this one I picked up two more books of hers in charity shops and found after a few pages that I’d already read them!) so I really enjoyed this one. Two men are found murdered in a church vestry, one of them is an MP and one a tramp, so they don’t know why they are there and why they were together. I like PD James’ books as they’re usually quite old fashioned - well, that’s probably not the right phrase, set in the 70s and 80s, so to me they’re old fashioned, haha - and they have lots of details about who the people were, who they associated with, and what motives those people might have. The characters in this were all very well written and it kept you guessing as to who might have done it and why.
161. The Book Of Dave by Will Self - I tried really hard to really like this, but although it was good, it wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. Half of the book is about a man called Dave who is having a bad breakup with his wife, and their son is caught in the middle of it. He has a bit of a mental breakdown, and during this writes a book about how awful his life is, which he then buries! The other half of the book is set hundreds of years later, where society has totally changed, and they have found this book and worship Dave as if he is a god. I liked the descriptions of their world and how they interpreted what Dave had written - he was a taxi driver so their “hello” greeting became “ware2guv”, in their language. However I did think it was just too long, and got a bit tedious. Which is a shame, as I like Will Self and his other books are really quite good.
163. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman - This is a children’s book but I’m going to include it in my adult book list as it covers quite serious topics! It is set in our world, but the “Crosses” are the ruling group in society, and the “Noughts” are the less privileged minoriyty. Sephy, a Cross with a father who is in the government, and Callum, a Nought whose mother used to work for Sephy’s mother, are great friends, and this book is about how the two groups live together (both well and badly!), how they are both viewed in society, and implications of this for Sephy and Callum. It’s a really well written book as it brings up things about racism and how people are treated that you would never have thought of - for example, plasters being the “wrong” skin colour for some people. Added to that, this book is interesting as the “Crosses” are black, and the “Noughts” are white - and I found it difficult to keep thinking of it that way, as in our (British) society in terms of who is in government etc, it’s the other way round. The people at my book club generally liked it, but thought it was a bit simplistic and explained things a bit too much - but then that is to be expected though, as it is for a younger audience. Highly recommended!
165. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami - This is the novel of the film, and it is really excellent. The film was great too, but the book was excellent as it went into more detail about the background of everything, all about the students involved and why they acted like they did. It had a lot about the students’ emotional responses to their friends being killed, and how they thought about their strategies for the “game” which was really interesting. It’s a bit of a scary concept really, because it really is written quite realisticly, you can almost imagine them doing it for real. But hopefully not!! The only slight problem I had with it (and this is my own fault!) is that I got slightly confused with all the names, but it was only because I wasn’t used to them, not having really read much set in Japan before. It was generally great though, and I’m even tempted now to read the manga of it, although I haven’t read any of that kind of thing before.
166. The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller - I did expect this to be chick-lit, but it was worse than I thought. It was about a man and a woman who moved into some kind of retirement complex - although from the way it was written, the woman was way too young to live there - and kind of about how the woman was looking back on her life, and assessing how what she had done in her life had brought her to where she was at that time. Then the second section talked about her earlier life, where she appeared to be some kind of “wild child”, dropping out of school, taking drugs, hanging around with lots of artists etc. It then just didn’t fit that she would become the person she was at the beginning of the book. She just seemed boring and lifeless at the end. Maybe that was the point? But I just didn’t get it really!
168. Zulu Hart by Saul David - Someone bought me this book, and to be honest I’m not sure why - I do like historical fiction, but not really about wars! Though it was about a period which I hadn’t read about before, so it was kind of interesting from that point of view. It follows George, the illegitimate and half Zulu son of a high ranking government person in the 19th century, as he makes his way through his education and early life. He doesn’t know his father, but has been provided money by him to get a good education, and join the army. There he finds discrimination due to his dark skin, and he goes to South Africa to find diamonds, but ends up being in the army again. He then fights in a war against the Zulus. This was kind of interesting as I didn’t really know what had happened in Africa in the 19th century, but the descriptions of war I found a bit boring!
I’m currently reading The Odessa File by Frederick Forsyth - before I started reading it I wasn’t sure what it was about and thought it would be just an average thriller, but it’s excellent so far!
So far this year I’ve read 99 adult novels, and 168 books in total - although I’ve been counting 2 books of poetry and two children’s books as one book as they don’t take me long to read, so the actual book total is a bit higher than that! I’m quite pleased overall, even though I haven’t read as many of the "1001 books to read before you die" as I planned! When I move into my new flat I will sort out all my unread books, as I’d forgotten that I had half of them, and I think my goal next year will be to read all of my unread books before buying anymore (unlikely to be kept, but maybe I'll find my lack of money prevents me from buying any books, I hope anyway!!), and then to go to the library and read lots of the 1001 books! Its quite sad but I'm actually really looking forward to having enough room to properly put my books in bookcases, and to have people come round and see them all around the room - I always look at people's books when I go to their houses, and I want people to be able to do that in my house too! :)