Cecrow - 2017 TBR Challenge

Primary List:
1 Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady - Samuel Richardson (2017/11)
2 Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson (2017/03)
3 The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (2017/09)
4 Shadowrise - Tad Williams (2017/06)
5 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (2017/05)
6 Shadowheart - Tad Williams (2017/08)
7 The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (2019/06)
8 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff (2017/07)
9 Dombey and Son - Charles Dickens (2017/12)
10 The Histories - Herodotus (2019/03)
11 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (2018/03)
12 The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen (2018/12)

COMPLETED 2019/06

Alternate List:
1 Something Like an Autobiography - Akira Kurosawa (2017/01)
2 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown (2017/04)
3 My Antonia - Will Cather (2017/04)
4 A High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes (2017/08)
5 A Gun for Sale - Graham Greene (2017/08)
6 My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell (2017/06)
7 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (2017/06)
8 Smilla's Sense of Snow - Peter Hoeg (2019/02)
9 The Island of the Day Before - Umberto Eco (2017/11)
10 Candide - Voltaire (2017/01)
11 The Castle of Otranto - Horace Walpole (2017/11)
12 Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson (2018/09)

COMPLETED 2019/02

Not so heavy a line-up I think, unless there's another surprise like Darwin that I don't see coming. The only frightening prospect is that brick by Samuel Richardson that redefines "doorstop" as it applies to the written word. I bought it for a buck in a library sale, just for the sheer joy of owning something so ridiculously enormous. I didn't actually mean to read it, but ... own a mountain, climb it (already traded away my abridged version, so no chickening out). The rest is my usual balance of fiction/non-fiction, short/long, paper/e-reader, favourite/new authors. I have Dickens, short stories, Ancient Greece, India, Canadiana and SFF all covered, and several it's-about-time titles. Let's go!

Lol that Greene is on my list, too! Wuthering Heights, nice. I'll be really curious what you think of Candide. xD Also waiting on your opinion of Kite Runner, haha.

I figured that Greene choice would look pretty random from among his work (first thing I'm trying by him), so that's funny. It's cited a bunch of times in The Rhetoric of Fiction, a really good theory book about literary criticism that added a bunch of titles to my TBR. At some point I also have to read The Power and the Glory for 501. Candide is up next for my e-reader, it's GOT to be better than Darwin. Chose The Kite Runner on the same grounds as I chose The Night Circus last year, but I'm trusting this will turn out more worthwhile.

Good luck with the Mars books. I only made it halfway through Red Mars and got tired of the politics. Nor am I a fan of the Brontes. I keep wanting to beat the heroines over the head with a two-by-four to knoc some sense into them.

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of the Herodotus.

Red Mars definitely didn't go where I expected, but I was okay with looking at it as the full picture of what colonization might lead to, not just the science. I understand the sequels go that direction too, so I've got the right mindset this time. :) Of all the Bronte stuff so far I've only read Jane Eyre and really liked that; what I know about this one is it bucks the conventional romance mould, which is fine by me. Mr. Herodotus is my prime suspect where another "surprise like Darwin" is concerned, but he's a good follow-up to Homer and I'm looking forward to some of the taller tales he'd have us believe, lol.

That is an eclectic list :) Should be fun reading next year.

Oh yeah, WH is definitely not your average romance! I adore the Brontës, they quickly became among my favorite authors once I delved in.

Lol the Greene pick was random on my end, I have a whole heap of his still on my unread shelves and I had a few spots left to fill on my list that I just went browsing the shelves randomly for, so my eye lit on that group, and as noted, I have a massive heap of tomes so I wanted something nice and small, so among the slimmer ones I was like, Welp let's go with this! xD The Power and the Glory was the first of his I read, back when I was 18. I don't remember much about it other than being impressed with the writing and mentally noting him as someone I wanted to read more of, though it was many years before I finally got around to doing so! :P

My oh my! What a very impressive line-up! Great idea to add a few books under 500 pages to the mix. Your arms will love you for it. I was one of the few that was not a fan of The Night Circus and I fully believe you will find The Kite Runner a more worthwhile read.

>9 Carmenere:, hope so. And yes, balance is important for a slowpoke reader like me who doesn't get through much besides what goes on my list. Richardson may take me most of the year, but I might get through Hanff in a night or two.

Very interesting list and we share two titles - Dombey and Son and Kite Runner. Looking forward to seeing how our thoughts differ or are the same. 84, Charing Cross is such a lovely book, hope you enjoy it too. Candide was fun from what I remember. My Family and Other Animals I found quite quirky. One day I will actually get to The Corrections but in the meantime will just experience it through your reading.

What do you think you'll start with for 2017?

Clarissa gets started early, meanwhile Green Mars, Something Like an Autobiography and maybe Candide are first, not necessarily in that order. Maybe I'll have Clarissa done by this time next year, lol. It's 1500 pages and printed the size of a hardcover Webster's Dictionary, I should be wearing steel-toed boots as a precaution in case of dropping it.

Kite Runner is projected for summer reading, Dombey and Son sometime around September.

Really exciting list! I'm glad you are tackling Clarissa. I joined a group read for it a few years ago, but didn't make it too long. Too much real life in the way. So, I'm really looking forward to what you think. The Corrections is another that I started, but put down at around the same time. I've been meaning to get back to both of those.

The Hanff book is wonderful. And I really enjoy Graham Greene. Overall, lots of exciting reads for you next year.

What I know about Clarissa is that it promises incisive psychological insight. I'm definitely more into that than biology, lol. The Corrections will be next year's Christmas read, which ought to make me appreciate my own family a whole lot more. Glad to hear more confirmation that Hanff and Greene are worthwhile. :)

Great list! Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors and 84, Charing Cross Road is absolutely delightful, as others have said. Have fun!

Maybe it's because I'm Canadian, but I had no idea who Willa Cather was until I joined LT and saw her name everywhere. This year I've paired her with Dee Brown, someone else here (Majika?) said it makes for an interesting contrast.

I've read two of the titles on your list (The Handmaid's Tale and Wuthering Heights). Handmaid's Tale is an absolute five-star read - can't recommend it highly or often enough. The Herotodus was, IIRC, on my very first TBR Challenge list - never got to it, though (someday!). And I'm a big fan of Flannery O'Connor and Akira Kurosawa - those should be enjoyable reads.

Good luck and happy reading! :D

Peter Høeg's books always feel strange to me, as though either their greatness is going over my head, or I'm just underwhelmed by how enthused others are by his books. They feel as though they're always on the cusp of someting magical-realism-ish taking place. I read Miss Smilla's feeling for snow twice over the span of a few years just to see if I'd missed something. It was better the second time around.

As an introduction to literature from Denmark, though, Høeg is a good place to start: he's one of the big contemporary ones.

The castle of Otranto is fun. Clunky and uneven (even by the standards of the day), but fun. Worth having read.

You have two of my all-time favorite books on your list, The Handmaid's Tale and The God of Small Things! Good luck with your list!

How is Clarissa going? The group I was in read the letters with the date that corresponded to the current month and day. I think I only made it part-way through March. Do you think that is a good method or too restrictive?

The letters correspond with the calendar year, starting in January and ending in December, so it lends itself well to that approach. Personally I don't want to read it that way though, for three reasons: because it's too good (I'm into the March letters already), because I wouldn't follow the thread of the story as well if I read it less often, and because I don't want it hanging over me all year. Although at the rate I'm going I figure it'll still be end of May, lol.

I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying it. One of these days I hope to read it, too.

#1 Candide

If someone said within my hearing or in print "this is the best of all possible worlds," I'd probably shrug it off as extreme optimism and pay no mind. Voltaire took enough effrontery to compose this short novel which is still famous for its satire some 250 years later. I guess I just don't know opportunity when I see it. Similar goes for when I wrote my 12th grade essay on Voltaire, when I might have been spurred to read something he wrote but thought "nah, that's just extra work". I missed out on the funny, and on its flip side: enough horrific violence to rival anything being published today, the running joke being these characters can hardly catch a breather for all the terrible things that keep happening to them. Some of it is history-based, like the Lisbon earthquake and probably the Bulgarian war. Mostly it's just happenstance, albeit credible happenstance. Voltaire's comeback amounts to, "Sh*t happens - a lot."

Voltaire has thoroughly cleansed my e-reader of its association with Darwin, and I no longer regard it with a look of dread. Merci beaucoup, monsieur.

Ah, Candide. I had to read it at school, and though I haven't read it since, I've always remembered it fondly. (I have bought it several times as a gift for others, though.) Perhaps it's the relentless grinding down of unwarranted optimism that so appeals to me.

Ereaders are wonderful things! Don't let one gruelling reading experience sour you on them!

That was such a fun book despite all the death, violence, etc...Such wonderful optimism!

I need to put that book on my list one of these years.

#2 Something Like an Autobiography

Kurosawa probably remains the best-known Japanese film director internationally, though he died in 1998. I haven't seen much of his work but "The Seven Samurai" ranks among my favourites and I know many of his others by reputation: "Rashomon", "The Hidden Fortress", etc. I found his 1983 autobiography in a library book sale, a rare case (for me) of picking up a title spontaneously. Its coverage ends in 1950 just as his career begins to take off, which seems an odd place to stop, but his intent was to respect the people he was continuing to work with in the industry and protect them from his dire honesty. In any case we learn what got him there and what influences shaped him, probably the most important elements of anyone's fame as it recounts everything that happened before they reached the public eye. I also obtained a good sense of pre-war and miltaristic Japan, and he's generous in describing many Japanese sayings I wasn't familiar with. I think he knew many of his readers would be foreigners.

Bizarrely, reading Kurosawa's autobiography was curiously akin to reading my own Canadian grandfather's memoirs, though they were half a world apart and had entirely different experiences. Similarities in life lessons and the human experience of growing up are striking and prove truly universal.

>27 Cecrow: That one is going on my wish list.

>27 Cecrow:

You haven't seen Rashomon? For shame, sir! You must correct this oversight immediately!

(Okay, so it's maybe not as important as proper nutrition, a good night's rest, etc., but you really should see it - it's a great film.)

I'm intrigued by the premise, about different characters telling their own memory/perception of events and how they all differ from one another.

>30 Cecrow:

Yeah, it's pretty great. Quite different than Seven Samurai, but very much worthwhile. If you liked Toshirô Mifune's performance in SS, you'll enjoy him here, too.

There are actually a lot of great Kurosawa films to chose from: SS, Rashomon, Ikiru, Ran... it's a long list. Amazing filmmaker. 8)

#3: Green Mars (Mars Trilogy, #2)

This sequel to a book I read last year continues the story of Mars' colonization and the competing views for its future, which pretty much run the entire spectrum. The author doesn't set up any one group as the "good guys" and keeps it real, which I appreciate. While the issues are entirely different from world priorites today, the politics are as messy as ours and play out as untidily as I'd anticipate. The story is still very thick with technology based on what we have currently or can reasonably conjecture. There's a lot of creativity employed in thickening the planet's atmosphere and raising its temperature. This is a far cry from being a story just about the science, however, which seems to disappoint a lot of readers. The moving about between different factions can also undermine getting to know some of the characters as well as you might like. The author isn't as interested in your getting to know them as he is in exploring how different people think differently about the same problem, arriving at different solutions, then view others' solutions as impediments to their own. It's a human condition story on a planetary scale, with Mars itself as the central character - a patient that is gradually being saved or is dying on the table, depending whose perspective you sympathize with. Looking forward to concluding this trilogy.

#4: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

My sympathy lay with the native American peoples' story before I even read it. It's one thing to take that stand on principle however, and another to read the details and feel it confirmed. Dee Brown has done possibly the best job of anyone so far, that I know of, at collecting those facts and presenting them from the native American perspective. As I looked into the sources and how it was put together, I can't say it was done without its own bias but I think some of that is needed - actually, a lot of that is needed - for counterbalance. What's remarkable is that he had zero native American ancestry himself, something you would never suspect while reading this book. He relies strongly on the most reliable testimony by recorded witnesses, which means he doesn't begin his detailed coverage until the 1860s following a short initial chapter summarizing the first four hundred years of confrontation.

The prose isn't golden, but its plain-spokenness comes with its own rewards. It effortlessly integrates natives' beliefs into their story without lengthy explanations or justifications, and while he mentions white men who sided with them he presents them only as token figures in what always firmly remains the native peoples' story. Less than halfway through I found myself cheered by every instance of the few tangible victories over their oppressors, and longing for more. The true 'savages' are made evident, and the true scale and nature of their crimes revealed. I'm not personally responsible of course, nor any of my ancestors for the worst of these that I know of, but they did all occupy and prosper on land originally taken by force. The dismal and fitting feeling I'm left with is tantamount to wishing I might pack my bags and catch a plane back to Europe to undo it all.

Normally Wikipedia is a fantastic resource while reading non-fiction for shedding additional light into all the corners. Dee Brown and Wikipedia view things quite differently: a number of villains who are heroes of stature, and vice versa. That's a light of a different sort. On the other hand, I don't get much comment anymore on what people see me reading but several people who spotted this one expressed some positive interest.

>33 Cecrow: Thank you, this is a great review. That one has been on my TBR for ages. I really should make it a priority.

Nice review!

#5 My Antonia

I read this immediately on the heels of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee", so that had me grumbling at young Jim's impression of how enormous Nebraska was (not big enough to share, apparently) and certain other bits. But eventually I lay that aside and enjoyed the story once I met his grandparents and their neighbours. The book has fun incidents like Mrs. Shimerda trying to hide the cow, interspersed with scenes of hardship and tragedy. Jim's wise grandfather reminds me fondly of one of my own. The story also evoked others among my ancestors, suggesting what their experience was (lots of farmers in my family tree, albeit none of mine were from the American prairies). Nothing splashy, mostly childhood nostalgia tied up in the prairies story. I'd never heard of this book before joining LT; too quiet, too American? It's good comfort reading.

Wow, weird coincidence. Willa Cather died today (April 24th) in 1947, exactly 70 years ago.

Maybe I should give that one a try as you're one of many people I know who have enjoyed it. I've been a bit reluctant to read anything else of hers after reading and hating Death Comes for the Archbishop.

That is quite a coincidence - nice timing on your end.

Wow. That's a timely read.

>33 Cecrow:
>36 Cecrow:

Two classics in one month - not bad at all! 8)

The Handmaid's Tale in the news (kudos to LT member DugsBooks for reminding me of it):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/books/review/margaret-atwood-handmaids-tale-a...

This actually ties in to my recent reading (The Diary of a Young Girl, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, etc.) quite nicely, too.

I'm on page 66 ;)

>41 Cecrow:

Hurray! 8)

>41 Cecrow: Can't wait to hear your thoughts. It's one I'm quite curious about but haven't pulled the trigger on yet.

I was glad to read your review of My Antonia. For some reason, I expected it to be totally different. But I haven't read any Cather yet. I have some of her books in my stacks, around here somewhere.

Ah Candide, how glad I am to never have to read you again! LOL. That book was so ridiculous it kind of made me nutty. But at least it is short. Hahaha.

Glad you're enjoying your titles!

>37 LittleTaiko: Oh, what did you dislike so much about Death Comes...? I started it a couple yrs ago but got distracted by other things, I think I'm about 1/3rd in. I wasn't loving it, but it was alright.

>45 .Monkey.: - I was bored out of my mind with that book. Towards the end it became one of those that I skimmed just to get to the end. It was a book club pick and generated a lot of discussion as about half the group loved it and the other half did not, for pretty much the same reasons I had.

#6 The Handmaid's Tale

I've caught up with the 25,000 other LTers who got here first! Read it maybe a bit faster than I should have, it was really good. Fertile women have become increasingly rare and are subjugated by a fundamentalist USA set on controlling reproduction. Canada is the locale to which these women wish to escape, if they can make it to the border. It's not unlike what we're seeing with foreign immigrants now slipping across the border in unprecedented numbers, or the underground railroad days. Some of the oppressiveness must seem fantastic, but in fact everything is carefully drawn from real examples in history, an amalgam of actual societal measures used in the past to maintain control. I don't fully know what's going on in the US around reproduction rights, but this is a timely work despite being published thirty years ago. On top of the intriguing story and theme, the writing is very well done. It's heralded as one of the best by one of Canada's best and makes several lists, including 501 Must-Read Books and voted 22nd on NPR's list of the 100 best SFF novels. I found no need to question why.

Here's a good news article about the television show's recent premiere, which sounds superior to the 1990 film effort. I love that Margaret Atwood has a cameo in it.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/handmaids-tale-premiere-1.4085488

>47 Cecrow: I must be one of the few people who hasn't read that yet. It sounds interesting as does the tv series. I may have to look into it more.

>46 LittleTaiko: Ah, yeah, definitely not the most action-packed book, heh.

>47 Cecrow: I only hear positives about that book, glad you liked it!

>48 Narilka: You're not alone! It's been on my list for ages but I've not yet gotten a copy either.

>48 Narilka: - Me too! I had a vague awareness of the book until the TV series came out. Not sure what I thought the book was about but quickly realized that my previous assumption was wrong and that it sounded fascinating. It's one I hope to get to sooner rather than later.

#7 Shadowrise (Shadowmarch, Volume Three)

I read the first volume for my 2016 challenge, and in December I picked up the second one feeling pretty sure I could finish it by New Year's; instead it ate a good chunk of January, being unfortunately kind of stodgy (and unfortunately not on my list). Now in the third of four books, plot lines are converging and the pace has picked up considerably. It was a big improvement and all of the chapters felt like they mattered, recapturing what I liked in the first book. As I suggested then it's a nod to classic fantasy, the main differences being some strong female leads and two Big Bads instead of the usual singular one so that it's hard to know which is the worse threat. There's also some pretty deep mythology with demigods in the mix and probably some full-fledged gods entering into the story before all's concluded. I'd still point you to The Dragonbone Chair or Otherland as a first sample of this author, but his erstwhile fans will find more good stuff here.

>51 Cecrow: That reminds me. I have Otherland in my TBR. Might be a good candidate for next year's challenge :) Sounds like Shadowmarch is a good series though! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Otherland is an interesting SF series in terms of reputation. While it didn't make too big a splash in US/Canada, in Germany it became huge and gets talked about there on the scale of significant literature of the 20th century! I thought it was good, but Tad Williams' usual challenge with keeping up the pace makes it tough in some of the middle spots.

Sounds like good stuff :)

#8 My Family and Other Animals

Gerald Durrell was like the British version of Jack Hanna, from what I gather. With all this memoir's focus on animals I was half worried this would turn out to be like my Darwin encounter. Happily it is significantly different in three respects: 1) it's the story of Gerald when he was ten years old, and he's describing what interested him at that age; 2) the descriptive passages are beautifully literary, and the Greek island of Corfu offers plenty of beauty to describe; 3) a good portion of the book is about his siblings and mother, and these scenes are unfailingly hilarious. In addition, he meets a number of colourful locals along with other folks visiting from abroad who are also all wonderfully drawn. There's probably more than a little exaggeration going on in this book (who can remember this much detail from when they were ten?), but I can fully believe it captures the spirit of his childhood memories, conveyed to the reader in all of its Technicolor glory.

Oh that sounds interesting.

#9 The Kite Runner

Afghanistan is one among a number of countries in the world that can really benefit from a profile boost and a better Western understanding of its history and culture. Here's an easy-to-read novel by an actual Afghan expat who knows what he's talking about, who can write about a country he loves and considers home and describe everything that was once good about it and could be again.

That benefit is so tangible and important, what the story is about almost doesn't matter. It's actually a very good story about fathers and sons, regret between friends, self-sacrifice, courage and bravery. There are some very moving scenes, and also some very chilling ones, and the tone of the ending is spot on. I was entertained, but more importantly I was educated. I'll be thinking about Afghanistan with more respect and compassion henceforth.

Thank you for the two reviews. I have been wanting to read both of those books.

The Afghanistan backdrop is the only worthwhile thing about that evil pile of pages, imho, LOL. Personally all I saw was selfishness and shame, which in the end simply made him more reckless in doing something that could possibly be viewed as courageous but he wasn't when he did it, he was just rash and hotheaded in his overwhelming shame. Frankly I didn't feel like there was any character growth at all, he was the same spoiled selfish ignorant jerk his whole life. Which was infuriating. God I hated that book so much!! lmao

>59 .Monkey.:, I thought he wasn't the same man at the end, living much more for others than he did as a child; I could make a fairly long list of points to support that. He redefined himself through his actions, and even though he was basically thrust into redemption by others, he did make the ultimate choice not to ignore his guilty conscience when there were plenty of opportunities to do so. Lol - I'll bet this one got lots of mileage in reading circles.

Halfway through the year, things ain't looking too good. I've knocked nine down out of the 12 I ought to have, and only three of those from the primary list. The better news is that I've halfway done Clarissa, which I haven't been giving updates on because I'm liking it but might like it less if I put any focus on how very long it's taking me to read it.

I've decided I will probably not get to Flannery O'Connor, Miss Smilla or Blue Mars this year. I was content with skipping Roy as well, until she surprised me with finally releasing a 2nd novel this precise year and got herself all over the news and everything, while she's sitting right there on my challenge list. Argh.

>55 Cecrow: - I read that one last year and found it quirky and amusing. Surely a bit exaggerated too?

>57 Cecrow: - You and I felt pretty much the same about the book. It really opened my eyes as to how wonderful Afghanistan was.

Halfway through Clarissa is amazing! I think you are having a great reading year. :)

>61 Cecrow:
The god of small things I read for this challenge a few years ago, and I loved it (my review is here).

I'm not saying you should get to it this year. But it's definitely worth reading, and you really should get to it soon -- it strikes me as a book you would get a lot out of.

#10: 84, Charing Cross Road

A series of letters, the first of which is a book order sent from New York to a small shop in London in 1949. The result pleases, more books are ordered, a relationship develops, and soon Helene is sending them food packets to alleviate the rationing and receiving invitations to visit. I liked this bit of non-fiction on two levels: one for the subject matter because, duh. Second for the ease of the relationship. There's no bitter misunderstandings or drama, just friendly letters traversing the Atlantic for twenty years full of heart and warmth. At the time of this collection's publication, striking up a distance relationship through correspondence was less familiar than in our present Internet world. Now it's an ode to the lost age of posted letters when you'd not see the next for weeks or months, but when each one felt so much more personal than an email or a tweet can ever hope to be.

This was such a lovely book - it made me want to start writing letters again. There is still something quite exciting about getting a letter or card in the mail. I've heard that the movie is quite good as well but haven't checked it out yet.

I absolutely loved that book. And I had no idea that there was a movie of it. (But aren't there movies of almost all books these days?)

A funny thing happened on my way to the end of A High Wind in Jamaica: I accidentally left it behind with family we were visiting who live five hours away. So, that one is on hold now, lol. Was a bit disappointing anyway, so no big deal. Switched to A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene, which is turning out to be much better. I should also be making another dent in my primary list pretty soon.

That works lol Can your family mail the book to you?

Yay Greene! :P

>69 Narilka:, even better, they oughta be returning the visit in a month or so.

>70 .Monkey.:, I'm inclined to say the same thing already, which is cheering since I've two more by him waiting on the shelf.

I've never actually read anything by Greene before but apparently I should try something of his soon based on the comments above. Also, there was a recent list of iconic books for each country and two of his books were on the list - Loser Takes All and The Comedians.

https://geediting.com/blog/most-iconic-book-set-in-every-country/

Greene is one of the authors whose whole body of work I am slowly collecting. It's a LOT though hahaha.

>71 Cecrow: Which others do you have waiting?

I also have The Power and the Glory since it's on the 501 list, and somehow also acquired The Quiet American.

Haha. All good stuff. :))

#11 A High Wind in Jamaica or, The Innocent Voyage

I had a weird experience with this one, and I'm not even talking about losing my copy and having to visit the university library. I had this pegged as an earlier Lord of the Flies but it has a peculiar tone that's like magical realism without the magic and I wasn't much liking it. I can usually rate a book by the time I'm half-finished, and I had this pegged at three stars. Then I read the intro to the library's edition and it shone a light on what I was reading: this is a novel that demonstrates childhood innocence is not aligned with moral good. It's chaotic neutral at best, and requires shaping rather than protection. Once I had that in my pocket the whole thing made sense and I've bumped it up to four and a half. It actually is like Lord of the Flies in theme, just not in content.

>76 Cecrow: Interesting. One I'll probably avoid though as I did not enjoy Lord of the Flies.

Great review! I have this one hanging around, and I want to read it for sure, now.

#12 Shadowheart (Shadowmarch, Volume Four)

This brings the Shadowmarch series to a close, and it packs in some pretty good climactic scenes as the various narratives come together in a neatly tied bow. It was fine entertainment while it lasted and a fun place to visit, but I can't imagine it's going to linger significantly in memory. Tad Williams doesn't write to an outline but takes the gardener approach, where the story flourishes in unexpected directions as the draft is written with only a vague sense of direction. I'm not a big fan of this when the making-it-up-as-we-go becomes too transparent. I felt that was happening in this final volume as pieces were slid about in search of places to fit, subplot twists felt like filler (especially the Funderling politics nuisance), and incidents of coincidental timing began to mount. I think most readers can look past that, however. The "me" of twenty years ago would have loved this as fondly as his other work.

Still reading Greene on the side, although he's pressing hard to be my focus. Only(!) 600 pages left of Clarissa, really want that done before I tackle Dickens. Roy is also a must, then we'll see how much time is left.

#13 A Gun for Sale

This was my introduction to Graham Greene and I'm looking forward to reading more by him. Thrillers aren't my thing, but a literary thriller is another type of animal. The murderer at the story's centre is made sympathetic, despite a third-person perspective and his pessimistic view of the world that makes him callous and cruel with everyone he encounters. Another neat trick is performed with the time sequence that produce dramatic irony on the first read, showing how events will line up before the characters are aware. He's even a deft hand with description and details. An ugly dress is described as looking like it was torn off a billiard table, lol. Apparently this was one of his novels that Greene took less seriously, but his power shines through.

>80 Cecrow: I'm not sure I've heard of a literary thriller before. That sounds interesting. How does it differ from the regular type of thriller?

I haven't read a lot of thrillers so you're tossing me a tough catch here, but I'd better defend it if I'm going to say it!

He doesn't tell a straightforward thriller story; there's playing with time, the seemingly odd asides that then become part of the story, and the underpinning theme about betrayal and bulwarks against betrayal. The story is told as a tragedy; it has all the hallmarks of a typical thriller paperback, but you come away feeling you've witnessed something sad, even so. The way he tells his story acts as a commentary upon it that puts a different spin on things and gives it some lasting depth beyond simply throwaway entertainment.

>82 Cecrow: I put it on my wish list. A thriller novel with some depth sounds appealing. Sometimes I just want fluff thrillers so it's great to have another option. I may have to look for more in the "literary thriller" category :)

I had never heard of that Greene title before. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

You are really doing great with Clarissa!!!

>84 billiejean:, it's not one of his better known titles, but coincidentally Monkey read it this year too: https://www.librarything.com/topic/243537#6053924

The Handmaid's Tale won big at the Emmy's, and author Margaret Atwood got credited for it:

Atwood, who was in attendance, was feted numerous times and got a standing ovation as she made her way onto the stage after The Handmaid's Tale won best drama series.

And each time the show won a trophy, the recipient thanked Atwood. Reed Morano, who won for her directing, called Atwood "her idol." Show star Moss was also generous in her praise.

"Oh my gosh, thank you for what you did in 1985, and thank you for what you continue to do for all of us," she said while accepting for best dramatic actress.

#14 The God of Small Things

As a couple of people predicted, I loved this one. Booker Prize winners are hit-and-miss with me; I don't "get" some of them, which might be a personal failing. Happily here's a case where I got it in spades. Arundhati Roy can work some serious magic with the English language, using a creative approach to put us half into the imagination of the characters while half telling the story of a family tragedy.

I'm liable to draw comparison with Midnight's Children another Booker winner set in India, but where that one just left me cold this novel emotionally engaged me from its opening and would not let go. Its scope is less grandiose and more personal, and it's better for it. I'm also willing to compare it with Ulysses for its playfulness with language (although not on the scale that Joyce tackled Homer, and much more easily comprehended and followed) and for the way it turns the familiar and familial into the epic.

Two-thirds completed Clarissa, so no Dickens yet. Umberto Eco instead.

#15 Clarissa, Or The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life and Particularly Showing the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct both of Parents and Children in Relation to Marriage

This is one young lady with a whole heap of history: 1,500 pages worth. I called it my New Year's Resolution to get through it and started reading the first week of January, reserving it for my lunch hours at work. Maybe not the best idea, given the many interruptions I tend to suffer at that hour, but appropriate for sparing me from lugging the monster everywhere I went. You would have to be an elephant to slip this one in your pocket; it's just so wonderfully BIG. I proverbially shake my head in amazement over how anyone could have written this thing at all, let alone done it so well.

One of my new favourite books ever, despite how long it took me. I like it better than Middlemarch, better than Austen, maybe better than Dickens. Much of this was like watching brilliant debating clubs leave nothing on the floor, with additional clubs coming and going to add their own two cents (more like two dollars; I said this was BIG, right?). In one corner we have Clarissa, the perfect angel and model of moral goodness. In the other we have Lovelace, the perfect devil and model of licentiousness. 537 rounds (i.e. letters) later, you have Mr. Richardson's conclusion on who would win this match. That's the intellectual half. The emotional half was wound up with travesties of justice and the desiring of just desserts. It was really incredible, given the frequent interruptions to my reading, how quickly I was always emotionally recaptured within just a paragraph or two of returning to it. I perhaps should have sought a reading partner for this, with so much fertile content demanding discussion and venting. A soap opera fed with all the brains you could hope for. Don't plot to read its dated letters by the calendar: it'll start easily enough, but then you'll be overwhelmed from April through to August.

Congratulations on finishing! That is a rather weighty looking book you have there. Reading your review has me piqued my interest - better than Austen and possibly Dickens?! That is something to look into.

It's a pleasure to read how much you enjoyed Clarissa! Congratulations on finishing!

That is quite an achievement, congrats on finishing!

#16 The Castle of Otranto

Here's an odd duck classic: in chapter one, the groom fails to show up for his wedding because a giant helmet suddenly appears and crushes him to death. Yup, that happened. I had to laugh, but the characters didn't: they react with horror and dismay, fear and panic, as anyone would under such an inexplicable circumstance. This is the crux of what makes this particular classic still remembered today, the meshing of fantastical events with realistic responses. It's pointed to as the original gothic novel, not a genre I'm off-the-cuff able to define except to note that Horace Walpole was a precursor to Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, etc. So it has some historical pedigree to make it worthwhile, but if you don't know that in advance then it comes with the hazard of laughing in a few places you're not supposed to.

#17 The Island of the Day Before

Umberto Eco is already a favourite author of mine after my having read his three best. I deferred trying this less heralded fourth until he died last year. The premise is just okay: an Italian in the 17th century gets shipwrecked somewhere in the south Pacific, but finds another ship to clamber aboard ... but finds it abandoned ... but finds it well provisioned enough that he has nothing but time on his hands to contemplate solitude, the puzzle of longitude and whatever else he wishes. Consequently there's not much plot going on ... but ... this author has never had to rely on plot to engage a reader. Eco is so learned in his discourse on virtually any subject pertaining to the period, he might have centred an entire novel around perusing a phone book (if they'd had phone books) and I'd enjoy it. Not exactly compulsive reading but plenty engaging, imo.

>92 Cecrow:
Otranto is one of those books that are fun to have read but that require a little perseverance when you're actually working your way through them -- at least in my opinion. I remember it as taking itself too seriously to really enjoy it.

A few years ago I read The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve, which was a short story written as a response to Otranto, specifically to tone down the more outrageous of the fantastic elements, which Reeve claimed pulled her out of the story too much. It, however, committed the sin of going too far in the other direction. Don't know if you're interested (it's available on Project Gutenberg), but I thought I could throw it out there!

>94 Petroglyph:, I read it on my e-reader and found it moved pretty briskly. I was actually impressed with the pains Walpole took to tie together everything his characters did logically, notwithstanding giant pieces of armour appearing all over the place, ghost sightings, etc. The outrageousness is the funny part, I might miss that.

Congratulations on finishing Clarissa, and you have such a great review that I want to try again. BUT not following the calendar method this time. You've had a really great reading year.

>76 Cecrow: Interesting! That one is on my shelves, I may need to get to it this year or next, I'm curious now, haha.

>80 Cecrow: Yay you liked Greene! I am pleased! :D You should read Brighton Rock next, as it's related, and also not as ...dark-moody? as a lot of his stuff tends to be.

>88 Cecrow: Wow, better than Dickens, and Austen?! Well now I'm truly intrigued!!

>92 Cecrow: Gothic novels are great fun, though occasionally you want to scream at the entire cast for all being such imbeciles, lmao. Basically they're somewhere dark and foreboding, generally with supernatural elements, and a distressed woman in the midst of some love story, who normally dies tragically at the end. Which...sounds kind of dumb and depressing when explained... but really because they're just so outlandish you enjoy the ride. XD

>96 billiejean:, thanks! Got some things done, at least.

>97 .Monkey.:, oh, Brighton Rock is related? Okay, may have to look for that. I've a different Greene title lined up for now. And more Gothic nonsense, too.

#18 Dombey and Son

I've tried to pick up prettier editions of Dickens, but this title was a hard one to trip across in any condition and a lucky find when it appeared in a library sale.

Reading Dickens in publication order has demonstrated his growth as an author, but that evolution has never been so clear as with this novel. This is where Dickens finally gets his plotting act together and knows from the start how his story fits together. Every horse is in harness towards that end instead of roaming around the pasture. I almost instantly found it more engaging than his last couple (i.e. Barnaby and Chuzzlewit), with the caveat that he too strictly omits room for surprise. It's as good a ride as any he's written to this point, but it follows a straight and narrow line. Knowing a key plot point in advance didn't help matters, so I would say in this instance it's best not to spoil yourself.

Thus is my review, but here's a fabulous early character introduction that had me laughing aloud and wishing to share with someone. Proof that telling is just as good as showing in the hands of a master.

"This celebrated Mrs. Pipchin was a marvellous ill-favoured, ill-conditioned old lady, of a stooping figure, with a mottled face like bad marble, a hook nose and a hard grey eye that looked as if it might have been hammered at on an anvil without sustaining any injury. Forty years at least had elapsed since the Peruvian mines had been the death of Mr. Pipchin, but his relict still wore black bombazeen of such a lustreless, deep, dead sobre shade that gas itself couldn't light her up after dark and her presence was a quencher to any number of candles. She was generally spoken of as "a great manager" of children; and the secret of her management was to give them everything that they didn't like and nothing that they did - which was found to sweeten their dispositions very much. She was such a bitter old lady that one was tempted to believe there had been some mistake in the application of the Peruvian machinery, and that all her waters of gladness and milk of human kindness had been pumped out dry instead of the mines."

Nice.

Year in Review, 2017

I completed this challenge three years running, but the streak had to end eventually. So what happened? Clarissa, mostly; and a writing project; and too many cellphone games; and I was a bit lacking in discipline, since I read a bunch of off-list titles. Five of my misses will carry over to next year but the sixth, Peter Hoeg's, didn't make the cut and will haunt me into 2020 at least.

At least I liked everything that I did manage to get to, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and Clarissa being the highlights. I'm enthused about reading more Graham Greene, Arundhati Roy's new one, and I'll review what else I've missed by Eco. Glad to have finally read My Antonia, A High Wind in Jamaica and The Kite Runner, it felt like those especially were really hanging over me.

Thanks to slower reading and some irresistible deals (i.e. drafty gaps in my willpower), my acquisitions were able to keep up with me so I'm still at about 120 in the TBR pile.

>98 Cecrow: It is, it's not a huge thing, they're both completely stand-alone and all that, but there's a tie-in between them. As wiki puts it, "There are links between \Brighton Rock\ and Greene's earlier novel A Gun for Sale (1936), because Raven's murder of the gang boss Kite, mentioned in A Gun For Sale, \...\ thus sets the events of Brighton Rock in motion.

>99 Cecrow: - Somehow I missed that you had finished Dombey. I'm happy to see that you enjoyed it as much as I did, though you explained why it was such a good book better than I did. You're right that it was more tightly constructed than his previous books.