These are my reviews of the very best books I’ve read. In other words, the books that I would give a sixth star to if I could.
The books may be new to me or they may be old favourites, they may be fiction or non-fiction, borrowed books, library books, long books, short books…but I can guarantee that all of them are great.
I will list my Great Books below as I discover or rediscover them.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Far Pavilions by M M Kaye
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Flashback Challenge will run from January 1, 2010 – December 31, 2010 and will be hosted by Aarti and Kristen M.
You can sign up for the following levels:
Bookworm – Up to three books
Scholar – Four to six books
Literati – Over six books
Within these levels, we have mini-challenges! These are:
1. Re-read a favorite book from your childhood
2. Re-read a book assigned to you in high school
3. Re-read a book you loved as an adult
I love re-reading books and this challenge will tie in perfectly with my new Great Books feature, so I’m signing up for the Literati level.
I would like to re-read any or all of the following books, though my list will probably change during the year as I have so many other books I want to re-read too!
Watership Down by Richard Adams (childhood)
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (childhood)
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (school)
Shogun by James Clavell (adult)
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (adult)
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough (adult)
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (adult)
The Far Pavilions by M.M.Kaye (adult)
Books read for this challenge (updated 2 April 2010)
1. The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
2. Watership Down by Richard Adams
I’ve signed up for the 2010 A-Z Challenge hosted by Becky. The challenge runs from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010 and there are 3 options to choose from:
Authors – Read alphabetically by author. Commit to 26 books.
Titles – Read alphabetically by title. Commit to 26 books.
Authors & Titles – Commit to reading 52 books.
I’m going to try 26 books alphabetically by title.
Books read for this challenge (updated March 30 2010)
A – Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin
B
C – The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
D – The Divine Sacrifice by Tony Hays
E – The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson
F – The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye
G
H
I – In a Far Country by Linda Holeman
J
K
L – Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
M – Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill by Dimitri Verhulst
N
O – O, Juliet by Robin Maxwell
P
Q
R
S – Spring Bear by Betsy Connor Bowen
T – The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
U
V
W – The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
X
Y
Z
I recently read The Quincunx by Charles Palliser and loved it, so I ordered a used copy of The Unburied from play.com. It arrived this week and is now near the top of my TBR pile.
When Dr Courtine is invited to spend the days before Christmas with an old friend he is keen to accept, even though it is twenty years since they last met. On the night Courtine arrives, Austin tells him the story of the town ghost, a story of deadly rivalry and murder two centuries old. Courtine’s real reason for the visit is to pursue an even older mystery. For, if he can track down an elusive eleventh-century manuscript, the existence of which only he believes in, he hopes to dispose of a deadly rivalry of his own. So intent is he upon these ancient mysteries that he fails to notice the malign conspiracy into which he is being lured…
With the holiday season now upon us, have you left any hint – subtle or otherwise – for books family and friends might buy you for Christmas? Do you like to receive books, or do you prefer certificates so you can choose your own?
I love receiving books for Christmas – in fact I would probably be quite happy if I received nothing but books! My family don’t like buying me books without asking first, as they wouldn’t know if I’d already read them, so I usually have to choose the books myself. My Amazon wishlist is growing longer by the day so I always have plenty to choose from!
I don’t read many non-fiction books or biographies/autobiographies so this was something different for me.
It was fascinating to read a personal account of the effects the war had on one woman’s life and on society as a whole. Reading this book made me realise how little I actually knew about World War I. A lot of the places and events mentioned in the book were unfamiliar to me and left me wanting to find out more.
Rather than just relying on her memory, Brittain uses a number of different sources, including her private diaries and correspondence and verses from poems, some of which were written by Roland or Vera herself. As I read about all the pain and sorrow she was forced to endure, I became completely absorbed in Vera Brittain’s story. I found it very inspirational that despite having her entire world torn apart by the war, she was still able to go on to build a successful career for herself as a novelist, feminist and pacifist.
Although Testament of Youth was a long, demanding and often heartbreaking book, I’m glad I read it and I feel I learned a lot from it.
Highly Recommended
Genre: Non-Fiction (Autobiography)/Pages: 640/Publisher: Virago/Year: 1933/Source: borrowed a copy
Books read and reviewed:
This week I reviewed Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. I also finished reading Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain this morning. It was not an easy read but I learned a lot from it – I’ll post my review later.
Blog updates:
You may have noticed that I’ve made one small addition to the left sidebar – this is a list of links to international book giveaways. There are not many giveaways which are open to those of us outside the US and Canada, so I’ll try to keep the list updated every time I discover an international giveaway.
I also now have an A-Z list of reviews which I will add to every time I review a book. There are only two books on the list so far because my blog is still so new, but I’m sure the list will soon start to grow!
Finally I want to tell you about a new feature coming soon to this blog – it’s called Great Books and will give me an excuse to revisit some of the great books I read before creating my blog. Although I have a very long TBR list, there are some books that are so good they deserve to be read more than once. Great Books will be an occasional series in which I’ll re-read and review one of my all-time favourites.
She Reads Novels 