2011: Books of the Year

If you saw my 2011 statistics post, you’d know that I awarded the 5-star accolade to 10 books this year – which should make this award-giving ceremony a cinch.  But that would be far too predictable – I like my awards to be spread across the spectrum of my reading, to recognise the best in the different categories read [...]

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2011: Slicing and dicing ….

My inner geek is calling and demanding I analyse those 100 books (98 unique works, 26049 pages) read in 2011 in more detail.  Just to make sure I’m not stuck in a rut or similar. My main objective in 2011 was to ensure that 1 in 3 books was translated.  To turn that much-bandied 3% to 33%.  My final tally [...]

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2011: Highlights

In 1991 this bookworm had no fellow readers within the immediate family and was a solitary creature. Raising a family meant that the annual read total hit the dizzy heights of 36!  In 2011 she still has no fellow readers within the immediate family but now has access to thousands and thousands of virtual reading cousins .  The chicks have flown the [...]

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The Best Short Story Collection (Discovered in 2011)

I don’t usually reveal anything about “My best of ..” until 31.12 of said year because I’m always aware that the final books of the year may be among the best.  It has turned out that the book I was reading (well, actually listening to) last week is right up there and in contention for my book of [...]

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Next World Novella – Matthias Politycki

As we approach the time to consider the books that will make my best of 2011 list, there’s always an candidate for the best book I never reviewed (usually because life intervened).   Well, right now the prime candidate for that honour is Peirene #4.  Of course, by the end of this post that will no longer [...]

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My Day In Books

I began the day with Therapy. On my way to work I saw Snowdrops and walked by The Water Theatre to avoid Splithead but I made sure to stop at  Jamrach’s Menagerie. In the office, my boss said “When Will There Be Good News?” and sent me to research The City and The City. At lunch with Effi Briest I noticed some [...]

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Death Comes to Pemberley – P D James

P D James’s admiration of Jane Austen is well-documented.  I remember well her claim in Talking about Detective Fiction that Austen’s Emma is at heart a mystery.  I suppose it is if you define mystery loosely.  Fortunately the mystery in James’s sequel to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice  requires no such licence. Darcy and Elizabeth have been happily [...]

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Blow on A Dead Man’s Embers – Mari Strachan

The title of Mari Strachan’s second novel is as intriguing as the title of her first and it is taken from the first stanza of Robert Grave’s poem To Bring the Dead to Life. To bring the dead to life  Is no great magic. Few are wholly dead: Blow on a dead man’s embers And a [...]

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This Wednesday is also wunderbar (Giveaway for US readers)

I’m not going to let the fact that it is no longer November stop me from giving away more German literature …. Oh no! Caroline and I have been approached by Music Box Films, who are wondering if our readers in the US would like the opportunity of winning a copy of Goethe’s – The Sorrows [...]

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Book to Movie: Resistance – Owen Sheers

1944. After the fall of Russia and the failed D-day landings, a German counter-attack lands on British soil. Within a month, half of Britain is occupied. The farmers of a secluded Welsh valley leave en masse to join the resistance, disappearing overnight, leaving their women folk to manage as best they can. Shortly thereafter,  a small German [...]

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