ReadingAdventures

This is my late entry for this week's Booking Through Thursday question

It’s an old question, but a good one . . . What were your favorite books this year?

List as many as you like … fiction, non-fiction, mystery, romance, science-fiction, business, travel, cookbooks … whatever the category. But, really, we’re all dying to know. What books were the highlight of your reading year in 2007?

I am answering this question a little late because I knew that I had a couple more books to read that I wanted to be able to include if they were outsanding!

In my stats post I mentioned that there were only two books that I would rate as a 5 out of 5 for the year, but that I would change one of those gradings retrospectively. There are 43 books that I would rate as 4.5 out of 5 and 113 that I rated as 4 out of 5. The thing with grading is that it is very much a gut reaction once I finish a book, and so as I look down the list I am finding that there are some very memorable books that I rated a 4, that looking back I would probably grade higher and vice versa. So, this list might not be all my highest graded book, but they are the most memorable reads of 2007 for me. Where I have written the review I have linked to it (included some over at Historical Tapestry), but it will give you some idea of how far behind I am when you see how many links are missing!

Having said all that, the decision as to what the best book I read was in 2007 was easy! It was......


The Arrival by Shaun Tan

The fact that this was a book with no words amazes me completely, but I was just so affected by this book that I can't praise his work enough!


The Honourable Mentions are:

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon - I swear this woman could write on the back of a cereal box and I would love it!

Taking Liberties and The Sparks Fly Upwards by Diana Norman - I read two of the three books in this trilogy this year, and really enjoyed them. Diana Norman is now one of my favourite books whether under this name or her other name, Ariana Franklin.

In Death series by J D Robb - I read 5 In Death books this year, and really enjoyed them all.

Josephine B series by Sandra Gulland - I read the whole series this year, and very much enjoyed it. Start with The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - so good!

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - a really moving book!

My Best Friends Girl by Dorothy Koomson - I cried, I laughed...I loved it!

The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani - such an unusual setting - 17th century Persia

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies - a Booker long list book - WWII in Wales - really good!

Barbed Wire and Roses by Peter Yeldham - I was blown away by this book, which I first picked up because I loved the cover! A story of what happened to one soldier when the history of a WWI doesn't quite make sense.

The Russian Concubine by Kate Furnivall - another book I picked up because of the cover, and enjoyed immensely.

The Persimmon Tree by Bryce Courtenay - there were major flaws with this book, but it is a cracking good story that has stayed with me!

Where Dreams Begin by Lisa Kleypas - I have been hearing that I should have read Zachary Bronsons story for a while, and I am glad that I finally did.

The Prince Trilogy by Elizabeth Hoyt - one of the best new romance authors I read this year.

Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon - Mmmm Vane!

My reading resolutions for this year were:

Read 200 books - I've just scraped in, having completed 203 books so far, although I do expect to finish another couple of books this year.

Read 15 books that I owned as at 1 January 2007 - As I mentioned in my stats post, I have only read 33 books that I own this year. The rest mostly came from the library. Of the 33 books that I read that I owned, only 4 of them were books that I owned before this year! Expect to see a similar goal in my reading resolutions for next year, because this year I bought 112 books. To say I am getting further and further behind on my TBR is an understatement!

Read Dorothy Dunnett - will a simple no suffice? I will read her....but it won't be this year!

Read more Australian Authors - In 2006 I only read 5 books by Australian authors - this year I managed 20, so I am pretty happy with that!

Shortlists - It was my intention to read the shortlists for The Booker Prize and either The Orange or The Pulitzer. Of the Booker shortlist I have read one, and have two more here to read. I also read two of the books that were longlisted but not shortlisted. I read three of the books that were shortlisted for the Orange Prize including the winner, but somehow I completely missed knowing what books were on the shortlist for the Pulitzer! Not sure how that happened. I did read the winner though! Overall, I haven't met my goal here, but I am not totally unhappy with what I did do! I might have something similar for my reading goals next year.

Blogging - My goal for this year was "try not to get so far behind on reviews, or to put pressure on myself when I do get behind!" At one stage this year, I was all caught up, but suffice to say that I am not at the moment!



I'll be posting my 2008 Reading Resolutions in the next few days.

It's that time of the year to look book over the reading year. I thought I would start with some stats about my 2007 reading year, and then in a separate posts I will focus a bit more on specifics!

No. of books:

Completed 203 books so far - expecting to finish 2 more before the end of the year so should end up with 205 by the end of the year.

Of those 203 books, only 33 were books that I owned, either because I bought them or got given them to review, and there were no rereads in amongst those! With the exception of 2 books the rest were from the library. By contrast I bought 112 books this year. I really need to read more books that I already own next year!

I read 20 books by Australian authors-vast improvement over previous years

Genres:

YA/kids - 8
Crime/Mystery - 26
Fantasy - 16
Historical Fiction - 43
Literature - 18
Non fiction - 5
Romances - 73
Womens/Chick lit - 15

Of those books that aren't historical fiction, the setting was historical in 55 of them, 15 paranormal and 8 suspense/thriller, although I don't always seem to be consistent in how I classify the sub genres!

Grades:

5/5 - 2 - although I would probably change one of those retrospectively
4.5/5 - 43
4/5 - 113 - seems to be my go to grade
3.5/5 - 27
3/5 - 12
2.5/5 - 4
1.5/5 - 1
1 0/5 - DNF

Publishers:

14 Harlequin
33 Harper Collins
1 Kensington
11 MacMillan
36 Penguin/Putnam
27 Random House
18 Simon and Schuster
6 Hatchette/Warner
49 Others

Total No. of pages read: 73889

New to me authors: 110

In summary, I read about 30 less books this year than I did last year. Not sure why, but I still made my goal of 200 so I am not disappointed.

I am kind of surprised that I read 16 fantasy books - I always say that I don't read fantasy, but I am averaging more than one a month!

110 authors seems quite a lot, but I did read a few anthologies earlier in the year that introduced me to a lot!

I did warn you that I was planning on joining in on some challenges in 2008, and here's another one.





Michelle from 1 More Chapter was quite surprised to find that she read less than 5 books this year that were published in 2007, and so decided that she wanted to challenge herself (and anyone else who wanted to join in) to read more new books in 2008. I have decided to join in on this challenge because I don't want to lose the new book momentum that I had this year - over a quarter of the books that I read this year were published this year! The rules are:

1. Read 8 books published in 2008
2. No YA/children's books are allowed (we are at the pub after all)
3. At least 4 titles must be fiction
4. Crossovers with other challenges are allowed
5. Titles can be changed


In order to join up, you can go and sign up at "The Pub"

As to which books I am going to read, I will start off with the following, and add more later!

Daughter of York by Anne Easter Smith (out February)
Fire Study by Maria V Snyder (out February)
Mistress of the Sun by Sandra Gulland (out March)
The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin (out January)
The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig (out January)
The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square by Sara Donati (or Rosina Lippi depending on where it is to be published)
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings has come up with a great idea - the Sci-Fi Experience 2008. As the title suggests, it involves reading Sci-fi. I think it is a pretty fair bet to say that I haven't read any sci-fi at all in the last, maybe 8-10 years! That's right....years!

I do however have one out from the library at the moment! And so, I am signing up for just one book, which fortunately is well within the rules for the challenge! My challenge book is going to be ..... Island in the Sea of Time by SM Stirling. It is a book that was highly recommended by someone in a group I am in, and I thought I would give it a go and see if I liked it too!

Click on the link above to read more about the experience!

"You can't avoid him forever, Louisa. Just tell him you're not interested, and put an end to it."
—Mrs. Charlotte Harris, headmistress

Marry? Never! It would end Louisa North's work with her ladies reform group—and truth be told, she likes her independence very much, despite her royal father's protests. So when Simon Tremaine, the dashing Duke of Foxmoor whom she once loved—and had exiled from England—returns bent on marrying her, she's skeptical. Does he truly care for her, or does he simply want revenge? It's difficult to resist Simon's dangerous charms, because the fire between them still burns as hot as ever. But when his ulterior motive for marriage is exposed, along with the deeply buried secrets of his past, Louisa vows to make him pay ... and the price will be his heart.

I have wanted to read Louisa and Simon's story ever since it was the background story in To Pleasure a Prince. The main couple in that book were Louisa's brother Marcus and Simon's sister Regina, and as such, they both play pretty major roles in this book as well! Without wanting to give too much away Simon broke Louisa's heart, and in this book, he has now returned to London following a successful governorship in India seven years down the track.

The instant that he sees Louisa he knows that she still affects him, despite her protestations. Simon is determined that he will have Louisa as his wife, despite the fact that he knows that he is incapable of loving her, as a result of the bizarre training that his statesman grandfather gave him when he was a young man. The fact that her father (who happens to be the King) is prepared to back his political aims should he be successful in both marrying her, and also in stopping her from her participation in her political group is a bonus.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book, although there was an awful lot of politics in this book, and at time they did get in the way of the love story. For example, there is more than one scene where the amorous activities between the two were used to trade off promises relating to the various political activities that the two of them were undertaking. Having said that, the work that Louisa was involved in in terms of prison reforms was very interesting in it's own right, and was borrowed directly from the pages of history.

Simon's search for documents relating to his cousin dovetailed really nicely with the novella in the School for Heiresses novella which I read earlier this year. Now I need to decide if I want to buy the next book in this series, because my library doesn't have it!

I think I will!

Rating 4/5

Boxing Day is the day after Christmas and is another public holiday for us, so no work until Thursday for us. It's original reasons for commencement have been lost through the ages, but one of the suggestion is that traditionally it was a day where the more well off boxed up some of the belongings and gave it to their servants, or less well off, as gifts. On the news this morning they mentioned that apparently the original reasons for Boxing Day have been so lost that according to a recent survey of young people in the UK, the suggestion was that the reason for Boxing Day was that it was inevitable that there would be huge family arguments!

When I was younger our family used to always spend boxing day together. Everyone went to the in-laws or whoever on Christmas Day and then we would always get together for a relaxed day. Now that I live in a different city that's not the case anymore sadly. I don't recall there being that many family arguments, but maybe I just blocked them out because it was too traumatic!

Here in Australia it is a huge sporting day - the cricket starts as does the Sydney to Hobart yachting race. It is also the biggest shopping day of the year here, with the stocktake sales all starting! Normally I would avoid going to the shops today, but I have been looking for a new TV for my back room, and when I saw that they were out cheap I couldn't resist, and then I couldn't resist a new DVD player or a special on Playstation2 games!! And then, there is a new book warehouse open nearby to us, and I went and got a few books from there.

Later this afternoon I am thinking that we are going to the movies to see Bee Movie, but I might be able to convince my son otherwise because I have really spent quite a lot of money already today!

And the last day of the 2007 Advent Blog Tour!

Thank you once again to everyone for participating! I hope that everyone had a great time reading about all the different Christmas traditions, finding lots of new recipes, and hopefully some new blogs to read. I certainly did!

For our finale, there are two sites to visit. One is Carl over at Stainless Steel Droppings, and the other is at my co-host Kailana's blog, The Written World!

I just thought I would mention that there are a couple of fun things that you can do on Christmas Eve, and both involve tracking Santa.

The first is at Norad, and the other is to track Santa using Google Earth. Tracking Santa via Norad has become one of our Christmas traditions!


Merry Christmas everyone!

Driven to uncover the truth about the mysterious death of his ladylove, the Duke of Hawkscliffe will go to any lengths to unmask a murderer. Even if it means jeopardizing his reputation by engaging in a scandalous affair with London's most provocative courtesan--the desirable but aloof Belinda Hamilton.

Bel has used her intelligence and wit to charm the city's titled gentlemen, while struggling to put the pieces of her life back together. She needs a protector, so she accepts Hawk's invitation to become his mistress in name only. He asks nothing of her body, but seeks her help in snaring the same man who shattered her virtue. Together they tempt the unforgiving wrath of society--until their risky charade turns into a dangerous attraction, and Bel must make a devastating decision that could ruin her last chance at love. . . .

Uh-oh! Even when I have read a book months ago, I can usually remember some details, but I am drawing a complete blank on this one! Apparently I quite enjoyed it when I read it as I gave it a 4/5, but it seems to have merged with every other historical romance I have read over the last few months! Which probably says a little something about this book anyway!

I really must catch up on my reviews so this doesn't happen again!

So, I remembered that The Hogfather was on tonight. Unfortunately I missed the first 45 minutes because we were in the city doing Christmassy things, and then I fell asleep and have no idea how much I missed - at least half an hour I would think! I guess it is fair to say that it is going well so far! And, I have no idea when the next part of the series is being shown!

This is the second last day to visit our participants! Today, we are off to visit Booklogged!

Today Carolyn Jean has some of her favourite characters giving each other Christmas gifts! What a hoot!

Sometimes the day begins with nothing to look forward to...

Another great book from Shaun Tan, although it didn't blow me away as much as The Arrival did!

This book is about a young girl who feels as though there is no one who understands her, and she is not sure what direction to take but then she finds what she is looking for, so that the book basically is a message of hope.

Whereas The Arrival was purely pencil drawn pictures, this book does have words accompanying the once again beautiful, coloured illustrations that Tan draws.

To say much more would be to use more words than are actually in the book, but suffice to say it is another kids book that I very much enjoyed reading and looking at!

Rating 4/5

The girls over at Book Binge are starting a game!

The rules of the game:

Take the letters of your name and write out a title of a romance novel for it. It's that simple, see if you can actually do it. You can omit the words "A" and "The" from the title to suit your needs if you want....

M - The Mysterious Miss M by Diane Gaston
A - Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
R - The Rules of Seduction by Madeline Hunter
G - The Gentle Winds Caress by Anne Whitfield



I have read so few books that start with G!!!

Remember that the mini series of Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather is on TV on Sunday night!

...the pizza shops in my area hate me!

A couple of months ago I was on my way home after a very long day out and about and my son and I decided to have pizza for dinner. As I was trying to be super efficient, I phoned through my order and was told that it would be ready in about 15-20 minutes. Once I got to the store I discovered that they had forgot to put my order through. So another 20-25 minutes later and I saw my name come up as ready, and then disappear off the list. After waiting another couple of minutes, I asked the guy where it was, and they said it wasn't ready yet. Another 15 minutes, and I asked again and they said, oh, it's been ready for ages, we just forgot to call it out for you. In the end, they gave the pizza to me for free seeing as I had been there for over an hour. Got in the car...and it turns out it was the wrong darn pizza!

Fast forward a couple of months to tonight, and because it was absolutely bucketing down with rain and I was soaked through, and this was the first night I had been home all week, I decided to try out a new pizza shop that has just opened near us. I placed the order, and then waited, and waited and waited! People came...and people went, and still no pizza. I heard them say behind the counter that there was a pizza missing, and I KNEW it was mine, but when I asked the girl why it was taking so long, and she said something along the lines of Oh, we are just busy. Finally.. it's ready, except the garlic bread isn't! Eventually everything was ready and we could go home and eat it! Luckily it tasted good, and the owner has assured me that he will look after me next time I go to his shop!

Oh my goodness, only 4 more sleeps! So much to do, so many gifts to buy! Luckily Susan Higginbotham is giving us a very imaginative tale of a ghost's visit to a British department store. Should be able to get some shopping tips from Richard III! Meanwhile over at Carla's blog, she is exploring where the words Yule and Yuletide come from!

Great posts ladies!

In the town of Waterby on Fire Island, the rhythms and rituals of summer are sacrosanct: the ceremonial arrivals and departures by ferry; yacht club dinners with terrible food and breathtaking views; the virtual decree against shoes; and the generational parade of sandy, sun-bleached kids, running, swimming, squealing, and coming of age on the beach.

Set against this vivid backdrop, The Last Summer (of You and Me) is the enchanting, heartrending story of a beach-community friendship triangle among three young adults for whom summer and this place have meant everything. Sisters Riley and Alice, now in their twenties, have been returning to their parents’ modest beach house every summer for their entire lives. Petite, tenacious Riley is a tomboy and a lifeguard, always ready for a midnight swim, a gale-force sail, or a barefoot sprint down the beach. Beautiful Alice is lithe, gentle, a reader and a thinker, and worshipful of her older sister. And every summer growing up, in the big house that overshadowed their humble one, there was Paul, a friend as important to both girls as the place itself, who has now finally returned to the island after three years away. But his return marks a season of tremendous change, and when a simmering attraction, a serious illness, and a deep secret all collide, the three friends are launched into an unfamiliar adult world, a world from which their summer haven can no longer protect them.

Ann Brashares has won millions of fans with her blockbuster series, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, in which she so powerfully captured the emotional complexities of female friendship and young love. With The Last Summer (of You and Me), she moves on to introduce a new set of characters and adult relationships just as true, endearing, and unforgettable. With warmth, humor, and wisdom, Brashares makes us feel the excruciating joys and pangs of love—both platonic and romantic. She reminds us of the strength and sting of friendship, the great ache of loss, and the complicated weight of family loyalty. Thoughtful, lyrical, and tremendously moving, The Last Summer (of You and Me) is a deeply felt celebration of summer and nostalgia for youth.

When this book was first announced, there was a bit of hoopla saying that this was Ann Brashares first book for adult, and yes, there were definitely some more adult scenes. Where sex is implied in the fabulous Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants book, it was more open and detailed without being completely explicit in this book. In many other ways though, this was a book that explored some of the same themes that we have previously seen from this author - loss, illness, young love. The other thing was the youngest of the two sisters who were the main female characters was only just in her twenties, and so in many ways, this book targets many of those same readers who have been reading Ann Brashares over the last however long she was writing the Traveling Pants books!

The blurb tells a lot of the story so I won't worry about regurgitating here. The story itself was a pleasant enough read about the relationship between two sisters, and about the secrets that family members keep from each other, as well about how changes in relationship dynamics can affect everyone involved both in ways that are expected and unexpected. What the book wasn't was something fresh and completely different from this author.

Overall, as long as you go into expecting something very treacley and sweet, you won't be disappointed. It was an easy enough read though.

Rating 4/5

This week's Booking Through Thursday question:

1. What fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
   (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
2. What non-fiction book (or books) would you nominate to be the best new book published in 2007?
   (Older books that you read for the first time in 2007 don’t count.)
3. And, do “best of” lists influence your reading?

In some ways this is a really easy question. It means going to the handy-dandy spreadsheet I mentioned in last week's answer and filtering for all book published this year and then for the highest grades, and then picking one right? Right?

Well, it's the picking one part that is difficult! So, below is a list of the best fiction books published this year, that I have read. For those that I have reviewed, click on the link to see what I said about them at the time!

• The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith - I love this series. Can't wait for the next book which is going to be called The Miracle at Speedy Motors
  
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini- incredibly moving story of two women's struggle for happiness in Afghanistan
• City of Glory by Beverly Swerling - Fantastic story set in the early days of New York.
• The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani - Historical Fiction set in 17th century Persia. Really good read.
• Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer - I loved this! Such a relief to have liked this one so much when I thought Don'