The Hippopotamus

Stephen Fry
1995
ISBN 0-09-918961-5

Ted Wallace is an old, sour, womanising, cantankerous, whisky-sodden beast of a failed poet and drama critic, but he has his faults too.

So begins the blurb on the back of this paperback, and right away you get a sense of just how sour and cynical Ted is. The first chunk of the story is told from his point of view, and while he is an outspoken grump, he does have some redeeming qualities. Agreeing to take large sums of money from his dying goddaughter, he leaves the city to stay at the country lodge of an old friend, to spy and record what he sees for her, with instructions to keep an eye out for anything strange.

Strange things - and people - seem to flock to Swafford, and before long there is a large cast of weird and strange characters, beginning with the family themselves. Even Ted, in his self-centred drunken mess, starts to notice that things aren't quite right at Swafford, and resolves to find out what it is.

Much of the first part of the story is told through letters from various people to each other, and it's interesting to see the way they present one face to the person they are writing to and another completely to everyone there (Patricia especially). As the mystery deepens, the tale switches to third-person, flitting from character to character, but it's easy to follow, and the ending builds up into a bit of a deflating climax that you can't put down.

I love the language used in this; it's more formal than most paperbacks, and so easy to lose yourself in.

Date Finished: 28/12/07
Year Total: 45

It's a Bloody Try Ya Useless Bastard

Paddy Sweeney
2002
0-9579559-1-X

Starting with two disallowed tries and a punch to the ref, this book epitomises the West Coast Bloke. From ducking shooting with prostitutes to punishing a guy more into the Junior team than he should be, this book outlines some debacles that wouldn't be out of place in real life. The blokes themselves, from Nugger to Knackerless to Echo Arse to Bull Tits, are hilarious caricatures of blokes that any kiwi either knows or can relate to.

However, I found that spelling mistakes throughout the book were quite distracting, and bits of the story were laid on a little thick, but this was a good, quick read that didn't require too much concentration.

Date Finished: 20/12/07
Year Total: 44

Book Lover

Jennifer Kaufman & Karen Mack
2006
0-00-722724-8

Dora spends her life in books. When she isn't reading, she's buying books, listening to people discuss books, or over-analysing everything that goes on in her life.

I could definitely identify with Dora and the awkward way she doesn't fit into life, and was looking forward to getting lost in the world of another bibliomaniac, but while the quotes at the beginning of each chapter were easy to digest, must of the actual literary references were quite heavy, and even Dora classifies herself as pretentious in places.

On the upside, the chapters were nice and short, each neatly wrapped up with no pesky cliffhangers. This is a book you read to find the ending, not the bit that happens one page over. The pace is steady and the ending is nicely brief and vague, with one name in the one place that gives the entire story the feeling that it was worth it.

Date Finished: 13/12/07
Year Total: 43

How To Be A Little Sod

Simon Brett
1992
ISBN 0 575 05916 8

"Well, here I am. And after the nine months I've just been through, this had better be good!"

So begins the story of a newborn baby, from day one to the end of the first year. The opening line suggests the rest of the story is going to be observant and funny, but by page 16 I decided that Baby isn't just a little snot, it's a little bastard with no sense of humour at all.

He and She, the parents, are to be punished and made miserable, although beyond producing such a nasty little shit, I'm not sure what they've done wrong.

I suppose parents might be able to identify with this book and find it funny, but being child-free I found it a real drag with little to keep it interesting. I have the two sequels, 'Little Sod's Next Step' and 'Not Another Little Sod' and although they are quick reads to boost my year total, I'm not going to bother.

Date Finished: 09/12/07
Year Total: 42

The Eight

Katherine Neville
1988
ISBN 0 552 15467 9

I first read this book in high school, and remembered that it totally blew me away, so I snapped it up when I saw it in a secondhand bookstore.

My memory was correct: this book is what the Da Vinci Code aspires to be. The vision and breadth is amazing, and this tale weaves everyone from Napolean to Wordsworth, Voltaire and Benedict Arnold, into an intriguing mystery.

Combining mysticism, mathematics, physics and chess, this is the story of a treasure hunt. The treasure is a near-mythical chess set, disassembled and scattered across Europe during the French Revolution. One of the nuns assigned to protect it, Mirielle, embarks on a journey to discover the secret of the chess service, her efforts mirrored over a century later by Cat and Lily.

This is an incredible book, and although parts of the chess explanations were over my head, the language is plain and easy to follow. Cat's both cynical and humourous, and Mirielle and strong and focused, and each woman has their own appeal. Their stories are combined into the kind of book you willingly lose sleep to get through.

Date Finished: 06/12/07
Year Total: 41

Once...

James Herbert
2001
ISBN 0 333 76140 5

This is a story about how fairytales are real, and how Thom Kindred rediscovers the faeriefolk living in the woods around his childhood home. After suffering a stroke, he puts the flashing lights and heightened awareness down to his brain misbehaving, but quickly realises that's not the case.

This was a very different story to what I'm used to from Herbert; this was a lot more adult, and much of it involved sex and sensuality. That said, I spent the first part of the book comparing it to the last book I read by the same author (The Secret of Crickley Hall), and it took a while before I could stop second-guessing what was going to happen next.

I did find Nell's transparency a little annoying - only fangs and a black cape seemed to be missing, but her story had a satisfactory ending (for me, definitely not so much for her). The rest of the ending, although just as neat, was much like a fairytale - very neatly packaged and very sappy. I would have liked to have gotten into Hugo's head one more time, but I guess that would have spoiled the mood.

I didn't feel this was a scary horror like Haunted or The Secret of Crickley Hall, and I found it a bit too light to what I was expecting.

Date Finished: 23/11/07
Year Total: 40

Neverwhere

Neil Gaiman
1996
ISBN 0-563-38746-7

Richard Mayhew is a Scottish office worker living out his life in London. He is engaged, has friends at work, and is dragged around art galleries on weekends by his fiance. He is a sap, but a sap happy enough with his life.

Until he stumbles over a bleeding girl lying in the street. Disobeying his girlfriend, he picks her up and takes her home, and finds his whole life changing in unpleasant ways. First, his desk at work is replaced by a plant, his girlfriend doesn't recognise, and his flat is let to new tenants while he stands naked and invisible in the bathroom.

Richard does the only thing he can think of: he follows Door into London Below, a strange world of the forgotten people of London. He joins her in her quest to avenge her murdered family, meeting some odd people, some odder places and finally, the oddest thing of all, his own mind, talking back to him and forcing him to grow up.

I really enjoyed this book. The range of characters mixed into the twisting plot isn't overwhelming, and Richard's evolution from sap to hero is touched with a dry humour that I really liked. The ending was an opening, so hopefully there will be more books, and is already a BBC series that I will have to investigate.

One of the best of the year.

Date Finished: 17/11/07
Year Total: 39

Desperation

Stephen King
1996
ISBN 0-340-65428-7

Random people, pulled together by a psychotic cop and promised living hell before death, caught in a desert town under a dust storm, fenced in by strangely obedient coyotes and buzzards.

This book started off like a TV movie that I had to sit through once, so the first dozen pages were passed wondering if it was that movie (and feeling pretty pessimistic about the rest of the story), but it veered off in a whole new direction pretty quick. Once I realised that there were no evil gangs of truckers, and that King's story was far more interesting, I started taking more notice.

This is classic King: the story takes place over one night, yet fills over a thousand pages with the history of people and places. An urban legend turns out to be horribly true, and the small band of arrested travellers realise that they are the only ones who can bring a halt to the insanity around them. The climax is built at a breakneck speed, and you don't really know what's going on until it's happening, so it's hard to put down (must know what happens next!).

I like the amount of detail that King injects into story, as I think it brings a richness to the tale that a lot of other horror writers lack, so the size of this book didn't faze me, although it did become a personal challenge to get it finished as quickly as possible. I'm not sure I'll feel compelled to re-read this story, but the first attempt was pretty enjoyable.

Date Finished: 14/11/07
Year Total: 38

Mankind: Have A Nice Day

Mick Foley
1999
ISBN 0-06-103101-1

Mankind, in his leather mask and bearing weapons, is one of the biggest fan favourites in the WWE, as well as being one of my favourites. He has a sense of humour alongside his willingness to sacrifice his own body for the entertainment of others, and the back of this book has a partial list of all the injuries he has sustained in his career.

I was interested in this book for two reasons: one, that I'm a fan of Foley, whether he's Cactus Jack, Mankind or Dude Love, and two, I'm as interested in the behind-the-scenes as I am in the show itself. I want to know how it works, and was looking forward to discovering how scripted things actually are.

This book was a surprise, and a good one. Foley is a great writer, injecting a real thread of humour through a story of frustration, determination and celebration. He touched on events that I remember, which seemed to make it more personal, and the photos scattered throughout helped to paint a blood red portrait of an amazing career.

What struck me most was not the self-sacrifice, or the determination to drive thousands of miles to learn how to tackle another wrestler, but a photo plonked into the story with a footnote buried at the end - a bloodied Mick Foley lying on the floor, a towel around his face. Doctors are busy stitching his face up, while his young daughter cheers him up by offering him lollies. That photo made me realise that this is not an extension of the make believe world of feuds and fights, but a real story, about a real guy with real, attainable dreams.

Date Finished: 09/11/07
Year Total: 37

Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Gregory Maguire
1995
ISBN 0 06 098710 3

Everyone knows the story of the Wizard of Oz, and the part of the Wicked Witch of the West. While this book recounts that part, it also traces the Witch through her life, painting a picture of a political activist and guilt-ridden lover.

Elphaba, the Witch, seems a strange choice of hero, but as the Wizard reshapes Oz, ordering pogroms and condemning intelligent Animals to the lives of ordinary animals, it becomes clear where the real evil lies. As Elphaba moves away from her schoolfriends and into the shadowy world of terrorism, some of her reasoning becomes harder to follow, but once the political intentions of the wizard - and of Elphaba's sister, the Witch of the East - become clear, the original story of her crusade against Dorothy, and her eventual death, become tragic instead of the traditional good-winning-against-evil.

This was an enjoyable book. Like a behind-the-scenes sneak peek, it will make you rethink the original story.

Date Finished: 31/10/07
Year Total: 36

Suffer The Little Children

Barbara Davis
1999
ISBN 0-7860-0664-1

This is the story of Jesse Cummings, a man driven by rage and violence, who was responsible for the murder of his sister and the rape and murder of his 11-year-old niece.

This was not an easy book to read. Actual content aside - the details of beatings, rapes and mental abuse is horrific - it wasn't written very well. The narrative is jerky, bouncing from the central story to the backstories of people just getting involved, and things are omitted or referred to without being explained (After everyone was arrested there is no further mention of the children until the epilogue, so we don't know what actually happened to them after the police raided the house).

The people are painted as barely as possible - there are accounts of events, but nothing that really offers a sense of who these people were, apart from repeated reminders that they were a monster and two broken women.

Jesse Cummings was sentenced to death for the crimes he was convicted for, and the author takes great delight in pointing out that he is now in a cell, forced to obey the orders of others. While the death sentence is certainly a fitting punishment, there is no record of his attitude or demeanour once the verdict was read, which I would have found interesting, if only to confirm how much of a sociopath he is/was.

Date Finished: 20/10/07
Year Total: 35

The Well of Lost Plots

Jasper Fforde
2003
ISBN 0-340-82596-0

The third in the Thursday Next series. I wish I hadn't left it so long between readings, as these books carry on as one continuous story. That said, it was easy to pick up the threads once more, and get into the swing of things.

Thursday, hiding from Goliath Corporation, has taken up residence in a book in the Well of Lost Plots while studying to become a Jurisfiction agent and figure out how to remember her husband while a mindworm plays havoc with her memories.

On top of that, there is a major upgrade to the world of books approaching, and agents are suddenly dying in horribly suspicious circumstances, the book Thursday is living in is in danger of being demolished, and her dodo is nesting on the sofa.

Confusing, hilarious and wildly entertaining, I cannot recommend these books enough - if you love a little silliness, and can accept some upside-down ideas, you'll love this serious.

Date finished: 17/10/07
Year Total: 34

The Secret of Crickley Hall

James Herbert
2006
ISBN 0-330-41168-4

I've loved James Herbert books since seeing Haunted, the movie based on his book, but tend to stumble over them by accident rather than set out to buy one. This one was no exception, and has been one of the best surprise finds this year.

Gabe and Eve Caleigh, both struggling to deal with the disappearance of their son Cam, leave the city and move into Crickley Hall, a forboding manor outside a tiny village. Even before they hear the tragic history of the house, they find out they aren't the only ones there, but refuse to leave.

This is one of those rare stories that stays interesting and stays as tense at the same time. This book actually made me nervous, which never happens. Herbert can create such a tense, terrifying scene that your skin will crawl.

The climax is good without being overly sappy, and although it's a horror, you still finish with a smile. I really enjoyed this - as much as Haunted, if not more.

Date Finished: 13/10/07
Year Total: 33

The Crimson Petal & The White

Michael Faber
2002
ISBN 1 84195 324 5

This is a whopping book - 835 pages. It starts with the book addressing you and introducing you to the lowliest of 19th century London prostitues, and bouncing from her to someone else to someone else, before settling on the two people at the centre of the story - William Rackham, heir to the Rackham Perfume empire, and Sugar, famous prostitute.

Much of this book I found to be stilted, confined by the formal writing and etiquette of the period, and even setting this aside I found the characters hard to identify with, albeit interesting. Agnes is a walking tragedy, once you know the reason why, and Henry is a walking contradiction. His relationship with Mrs Fox irritates more than entertains, and the resolution there is ironic, if not satisfactory.

The story itself eclipses the various issues I had with the characters, and the climax builds up into a real page-turner, which made the ending all the more infuriating. In fact, the ending to this book sucked, considering how many pages there were to get through before it. That said, actually having finished it is an achievement in itself, and good enough for me.

Date Finished: 06/10/07
Year Total: 32

Fireworks

Elizabeth H Winthrop
2006
ISBN 0 340 92130 7

Hollis Clayton is facing a long, bleak summer. His wife has gone - gone away to think, to see if their marriage is worth saving, his relationship with Jack Daniels is fast becoming the most immediate in his life, and he seems to have picked up a stray dog somewhere along the way.

The story is interspersed with random recollections, including the death of his son and how he and his wife retreated from each other, in between the haphazard relationship with his girlfriend, his attempts at getting past his writers block, and spying on the neighbour's kids.

Funny and sad at the same time, Hollis is wrapped up entirely in his own world and his perception of it, a lot of which struck me as honest - everyone is the same. I found the writing easy to fall into, and each memory was both touching and more or less relevant to the story in general.

The ending served to reinforce the idea that, rather than a story, this is a nonstory, a section of a man's life, and I found myself hoping that things ended positively.

Date Finished 27/09/07
Year Total 31

The House of Sight & Shadow

Nicholas Griffin
2000
0-316-85444-1

Joseph Bendix arrives in London hoping to secure an apprenticeship with the reclusive Doctor Calcraft on the way to his own future and fortune.

Bendix and Calcraft experiment with the illegal remains of hanged prisoners, seeking a cure for an extraordinary malady belonging to an even more reclusive patient.

I got halfway through this book before deciding that I really didn't like Bendix or his arrogant observations about the people around him. The other characters are little better, and the more the story progressed the more it became a challenge to finish. From the saccharine, pure and perfect Amelia to the shifty, scheming Sixes, there were no characters that inspired any sympathy.

The ending was a mixture of ironic justice and too-tide epilogue, but I was more relieved to have finished it to take much notice.

Date Finished 24/09/07
Year Total 30

Blind Submission

Debra Ginsberg
2006
ISBN 978174175-150-5

This story opens with first-day-on-the-job jitters from Angel, starting a new career at a literary agency - reading the submitted manuscripts and deciding whether or not they are any good. Right from the beginning, there is a sense of almost hysterical urgency - the pace at the office is exhausting, even for the reader, and Angel throws herself into it to the detriment of the rest of her life, including writer/boyfriend Malcolm.

Between a crazy boss and an apparent stalker/submitter who is penning her life, Angel would start to wonder if she is going crazy herself - if she had time between phonecalls, memos and reading assignments.

The frenetic energy of the office hits you straight away, and the weird behaviour of Lucy and 'Kelly' do nothing to make Angel or the reader feel at home. Lucy is an engima, but by no means a quiet one - she is intimidating and scary, and Angel herself is stretched so thin that it's hard to tell if her uncharitable thoughts are a result of exhaustion or if she is actually quite nasty.

That aside, the mystery at the centre of the story - who is writing the manuscript that is following Angel's life - keeps you interested and reading. The ending arrives just as quickly as the rest of the book, and it confused me for several pages, but the tidying up at the end of the book makes up for it.

Enjoyable, but exhausting reading.

Date Finished: 14/09/07
Year Total: 29

Making History

Stephen Fry
1996
0099464810

I picked this book up because I am a huge fan of Blackadder, and Stephen Fry was one of the main character in the final series. He's a brilliant actor and comedian, and it turns out his humour translates just as well when he writes.

We start with Michael Young, who, together with a reclusive physics professor, hatch a plan to divert history - to make sure Hitler was never born, never mind what else he got up to.

The plan is executed - and Michael find himself in a strange country, with a strange history and a strange culture surrounding him. Armed with the dubious trust of a fellow student, he learns that Hitler may not have been the worst possibility, and that the path history has taken instead is all his fault.

There is a humour and passion in this book, and, combined with a sense of urgency that builds, manages to hide the real point of the story until the closing pages. I re-read the final dozen pages, just to savour the moment - this is a story with the best kind of ending. Unexpected, and it totally melts your heart.

This was a hugely entertaining read, and I'm definitely adding Fry as an author to collect.

Date Finished: 10/09/07
Year Total:28

Temeraire: Throne of Jade

Naomi Novik
2006
000 721913 X

A sequel to the astonishing 'Temeraire', this was a welcome surprise find at the library.

The formal language and the stiff-necked etiquette is easy to get used to, and the relationship between man and dragon is explored as Temeraire is drawn towards the land of his heritage.

Laurence is put in the unenviable position of being caught between the worlds of aviator, naval officer and ambassador, and as the story winds its way towards China it gets more and more riveting.

This is a great book. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to more.

Date Finished: 04/09/07
Year Total: 27

Billie's Kiss

Elizabeth Knox

Book Finished: 01/09/07
Year Total: 26

The Dew Breaker

Edwidge Danticat
2004
ISBN 0349 11789 6

The blurb on the back of this book promises a lot, beginning with a man with a vicious, violent past, and the unfolding of his story. The first few pages begin with the man's daughter and her discover of his secret.

From there though, things get fragmented. The story becomes the stories of other random people, some of whom have no discernible connection to the family at the centre promised in the blurb. There is no reference to when in the story things are happening, and no reference to how anyone ties in.

Altogether, this is a confusing picture of a collection of lives, all somehow touched by the hardships they've encountered, but it's so distracting trying to place how everyone fits together that the mood the author is trying to
create gets lost.

Date finished: 20/08/07
Year Total: 25

Labyrinth

Kate Mosse
2005
ISBN 0 75286 054 2

Another story about the quest for the Grail, tying in modern day suspense with medieval conspiracies. Luckily, this is one story that works, and works really well.

The story begins with Alice Tanner, stumbling across a cave on an archeological dig in southern France, and then jumps between her and the confusing events that take place afterwards, and the story of Alais, a young Cathar woman who lived eight hundred years before.

Instead of relying on codes and mysteries symbols to keep the reader hooked, Mosse has drawn a rich tapestry of words, using emotion and action to keep you turning the pages. It works well - I sat up late several times so I could reach the next part of the story.

Sad and uplifting at the same time, this had me hooked. I think the quote on the cover sums it up well: "Eat your heart out, Dan Brown, this is the real thing." (Val McDermid).

Date Finished: 18/08/07
Year Total: 24

Lost In A Good Book

Jasper Fforde
2002
ISBN 0340 822 83 X

I read Fforde's first book (The Eyre Affair) last year and loved it, and decided to read the books in order. It turns out this is a good idea, as the sequel pick up right where the first book left off, and there are so many references to people and explanations from the first book that it would be almost impossible to understand as a stand-alone read.

Prequel-dependence aside, this book is so packed with startling everyday occurences, such as the tourist attraction of migrating mammoths, that the idea of jumping in and out of books can seem plausible, paving the way for Thursday's apprenticeship as an agent of jurisfiction, the literary protectors who work from inside the classics.

With Hades dead and Jack Schitt (definitely something to be said for the names of the characters - several short-lived personalities included Dedman, Walking, Cannon, Fodder and Chalk and Cheese) safely trapped in a copy of the Raven, Thursday intends to enjoy married life, but is dismayed to find that her husband has been eradicated - removed from the world as a toddler - and someone is trying to kill her.

Armed with a jar of lentils and a determined anger, Thursday is out to get her husband back - whatever the cost.

Book finished: 09/08/2007
Year Total: 23

Caucasia

Danzy Senna
1998
0 7336 0999 6

A story about race and family in the '70s.

I very nearly gave up within the first 30 pages. The story made me uncomfortable, and I didn't like the tone. I don't live in the kind of racist society that Birdie spent her first years in, so I found it hard to just accept things that were done and said. As Birdie grows up and loses half her family, she makes choices and says things that I couldn't identify with, but although I had no affinity with any of the characters and wasn't too keen on the plot, I kept reading to find out whether or not Birdie was reunited with her sister.

I know this book is part fiction, part autobiography, but the racism themes weaving around the story were foreign to me, making it difficult to get past and concentrate on the story itself.

Date Finished: 26/07/07
Year Total: 22

The Adventures of Flash Jackson

William Kowalski
2003
ISBN 0 385 60556 0

Flash Jackson, the alter-ego of 17 year old Haley, is a stuntman looking for adventure in rural America. Horse-riding, swimming, climbing trees - it's all part of summer, so far as Flash is concerned. Until Haley goes through the roof of an old barn, shattering her leg in three places and guaranteeing a summer spent enclosed in plaster.

Going from a running start to a screeching halt, Haley starts examining her relationships with the people around her, starting with the fact her mother drives her insane. After her closest friend breaks her heart, she retreats into the woods, living with her crazy Grandmother and learning about her heritage, which alters the tone of the story from real and funny to something mysterious and fascinating.

The change is gradual, with hints right from the beginning of her friendship with Elizabeth Powell, and by the time Haley learns about her grandmother's truth, she is a different person to the Flash Jackson we met at the beginning of the book.

The main problem I had with this book was keeping the time period straight in my mind. Although Haley mentions that they live in the twenty-first century, the language and attitudes seem to be more mid-50's or so, and stumbling over references to modern gadgets like dishwashers and cellphones is a bit jarring. Getting tangled up in the wrong time period only seemed to make the book more interesting though, and the clash between forest life and modern life is only emphasised more because of it.

Date Finished: 20/07/07
Year Total: 21

I Don't Know How She Does It

Allison Pearson
2002

Can a woman successfully juggle a high-flying career in finance and a family? Not without lashings of guilt, overcompensation and a horribly cynical outlook on life.

Kate Reddy thinks she's got the balance right, although she's always open to more guilty introspection. Her tale rushes headlong through missing children's bedtimes, overcompensating towards passive-aggressive nanny, being exploited in the workplace because she's a woman and trying to keep up with other women who have given up and gone home to be mothers.

The tale seems to have no apparent plotline - things lurch from one almost-disaster to another, and when a hint of storyline appears two-thirds of the way through, I thought it was played out too quickly.

Funny in places, brilliantly hilarious in others, overall this book smacked of the desperation of Kate, and although it's a relief when she finally sorts herself out, I thought the ending was both too nicely wrapped up (everyone's fate nicely laid out for easy digestion) Kate's own fate is not very satisfactory, after her struggle to cope throughout the rest of book.

Date Finished: 18/07/07
Year Total: 20

It's Not News, It's Fark

Drew Curtis
2007

Fark.com is one of my favourite websites, and the best place online for news. Drew Curtis, the man behind the curtain, has spent more time than anyone looking at thousands of news articles, so he is definitely an authority on where Mass Media is going wrong, and what it's doing right.

Even with only a passing interest in politics, America law or the behind-the-scenes of how Mass Media operates, this book is hugely entertaining. Curtis has the ability to cut through the buzzwords and bullshit, leaving you with a much better understanding of how you're being manipulated, and he does it while making you laugh.

Date Finished: 25/06/07
Year Total: 19

A Cat Called Birmingham

Chris Pascoe
2004

A non-fiction book about a mans cat. Not exactly a prize-winning topic but Brum is certainly not an average cat.

It's a tale of miracles - or at least the fact Brum made it to adulthood seems to be a miracle. The recounting of how Brum sets himself on fire multiple times, goes belly-flopping into ponds, off walls and onto moving cars is hilarious, as is the strange relationship between cat and toddler.

There are distractions though - imaginery holidays and tales of other, less interesting cats are less appealing, and at times downright irritating, but the pages devoted to Brum make it worthwhile.

Date Finished: 18/06/07
Year Total: 18

Not In The Guide Book: The Wackiest Sights on Google Earth

Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull
2006

This little album appealed to the voyeur in me - taking a peek at other places that other people have been peeking at as well.

Each image is explained in a few paragraphs, and compass, scale and co-ordinates are supplied if you want to see 'the real thing' on your own Google Earth. There is a good sense of humour throughout the tour, and it was an enjoyable way to pass the time. At 144 pages, it's a quick flick, but I think the fun feeling would have been lost if it was much longer.

Date Finished: 17/06/07
Year Total: 17

The History of Love

Nicole Krauss
2005

I didn't understand this book. The beginning, an old man trying to stay visible in a world that did its best to ignore him, made me uncomfortable - it was so intimate it felt like spying. And yet. I kept going, surprised by the contrast between Leo and Alma, and expected that the confusing parts would iron themselves out, but they didn't - by the time I finished it was a random collection of scenes, seemingly put together to fill the blank pages at the end of the book.

I thought this book was more about sadness than about love, but confusion was the most dominant feeling I got out of it.

Date Finished: 17/06/07
Year Total: 16

Ubik

Philip K. Dick
1969

Two things drew me to this book: it had rounded edges, which is unusual, and the forward is written by Michael Marshall Smith, who I like.

I haven't read a lot of science fiction, as I don't like plunging into a completely foreign world where I don't know the basic rules. I was expecting this to start strange and foreign, and get worse from there, but it was written in a far more subtle way than that. I was intrigued, but I didn't feel totally lost.

The story progresses at a steady pace, with Joe Chip as the star of the show. When his boss is killed by an attacked from an enemy company, Joe must hold his colleagues together until he can figure out what to do next, but things start to go wrong, and Joe needs to figure out why before anyone else dies.

Date Finished: 11/06/07
Year Total: 15

The Lost Gardens

Anthony Eglin
2005

When American woman Jamie find herself inheriting a neglected English estate, she calls in Lawrence Kingston, retired botany professor and amateur detective, to help restore the gardens to their former glory.

When an old chapel is discovered, complete with skeleton, Kinston started investigating, turning up a mystery decades old.

An easy story to read, I was expecting a fair bit of technical explanation about plants and gardens, but it seemed that Kingston knows about everything, with the exception of viticulture, which Jamie spends several pages on.

The mystery itself was interesting, but the characters and tedious technical information wasn't. Anyone with an interest in gardening, viticulture, wine and timber joinery will enjoy this book much more than I did.

Date Finished: 09/06/07
Total for Year: 14

On A Highland Shore

Kathleen Givens
2006

This is the story of Margaret McDonald, whose ordered and pre-planned life is something to cherish and look forward to. Until her betrothed turns out to be an arrogant man she can't stand, and her family is killed by marauding strangers. Left alone with her unstable brother and her younger sister, she turns to mysterious Irishman Gannon MacMagnus, to help find out who destroyed her life and where her younger brother is.

It seems there are a million Gaelic love stories around now, and I was a little hesitant about trying a new author in such a crowded genre, but this was a genuine pleasure to read. The characters were well-rounded, and the bad guys were bad enough to dislike but managed to stay away from being cliched or corny. The love story managed to stay slightly ahead of the impending war in terms of importance, but was written well enough that it worked better that way.

Clearly the beginning of a series, I'd be interested to see how the larger story - that of Margaret's younger sister and kidnapped baby brother - pans out.

Date Finished: 29/05/07
Year Total: 13

The Da Vinci Mole

'Dr Ian Browne'

What is Dan Brown afraid of? Uh, probably nothing. But he should be.

Parodies of books rarely follow the original very closely - they caricature the main characters, and then wander off on a tangent of their own, but this one didn't. This one is so close that you could quite easily read it without having read the Da Vinci Code first. The characters are just as annoying and transparent, the action and mystery just as convoluted and ridiculous. Even the author is a thinly-veiled parody, which just made the book seem even funnier - it gives the entire thing the same edgy hysteria as jumping on sofas on national television does.

That said, I don't think I got the answers to the riddles at the back of the book (there was nothing mentioned at the beginning about a quiz!), although the contest is closed by now anyway. I did wonder if the contest itself was part of the parody, but I guess it doesn't matter.

A quick read, I found it hilarious.

Date Finished: 01/05/07
Year Total: 12

A Man of Texas

Amy Sadler
1993

A Black Horse Western, this is a quick read with minimal character development and depth. It reads like a movie, which is exactly what I was in the mood for. Unfortunately, the blurb on the back of the book tells the entire story - there's really no need to read anything inside. The story jumps ahead months or years without warning, and the writing is best described as thin. Another ten or even twenty thousand words wouldn't have gone amiss.

Date Finished: 17/04/07
Year Total: 11

Sasso

James Sturz
2001

Two teenagers are found dead in a cave, in a city of caves in Italy. Before they died, they ate the walls, revealing painted frescoes. Foreign experts, including Americans, are recruited to examine the walls, while the police examine the bodies.

The police investigation goes nowhere, and the work the Americans undertake seems to go nowhere too, especially when more bodies show up and they are ordered to stop their work. As both investigations grind to a halt, so does the flow of the book, and it became as frustrating to me as it was to the characters. They lapse into lethargy, interrupted by brief bursts of determined snooping, while I continued reading only to add the book to the total of finished books.

The ending is unsatisfactory, and after the dull drag of the rest of the book, feels rushed.

Date Finished: 15/04/07
Year Total: 10

Thud!

Terry Pratchett
2005

Commander Vimes is one of my favourite characters on the Discworld, and seeing him in the role of doting dad is adorable and very nearly outshines the case Vimes find himself dealing with, which is the most politically-prickly he's ever had to deal with.

Trolls and dwarves have been sworn enemies longer than anyone can remember, and, according to both sides, for good reason (not quite the same reason, naturally). Now, things are stirring on both sides that could see a legend re-enacted in Vimes' own city, which could seriously interrupt the Commander's busy schedule. He begins an investigation, which meanders in seemingly random directions, the way the best cases do.

Something that struck me that was different about this D/W story was that there are a lot of memories from past books. It seemed a lot more personal, knowing the details of past events mentioned by the aging Watchmen. I like the idea of characters evolving and changing along with the city they patrol, although it did make me wonder about who is going to retire first.

Date Finished: 25/03/07
Year Total: 9

Odd Thomas

Dean Koontz
2004

Recommended to me by several people on the 50 Books group, I wondered how good yet another 'I see dead people' story could be, especially one that featured Elvis.

Odd Thomas lives up to his name - he is both funny and screwed up, just the right combination for a hero you can't help but like. His circle of friends are just as screwy, which seems to ground Odd as he moves in a world haunted by people and shadows alike.

I wasn't so keen on the way the ending was written, as I felt that I was deliberately misled, as opposed to just missing something subtly implied. Still, I enjoyed the rest of it, and will definitely keep an eye out for more Odd Thomas books.

Date Finished: 24/03/07
Year Total: 8

Dark Delicacies

Edited by Del Howison & Jeff Gelb
2005

Seeing as I'm neither a connoisseur of neither horror or short stories, I began this book with trepidation. The only horror I read is Stephen King, who stuffs his tales with so much detail you get lost in it. In these stories, by definition only a handful of pages long, every detail is important somehow, and everything else is stripped away, leaving you with the bare, bloodied bones of the story.

Each story left me feeling uneasy and uncomfortable, although there were no moments when I lost myself enough to feel fright. I'm not sure that wasn't the idea though - fright can be dispelled with the flick of a lightswitch, whereas the uncomfortable feeling settled like the aftertaste of too-greasy food.

I'm surprised by how much I enjoyed these stories. They were just the literary ad-break I was looking for.

Year Total: 7
Date Finished: 21/03/07

Rumo & His Miraculous Adventures

Walter Moers
2003

Fun, amazing, completely original, this book blew me away. Completely different to anything I've read in years, it was a tale that begged not to be put down, and the wide range of people, places and stories is mind-boggling.

Rumo, torn from his adopted family by marauders of the sea (technically not pirates), he grows up quickly and, under the guise of Smyke, a shark grub, begins his long list of heroic deeds. We follow his progress as he makes it to Wolperting, the city of his people, and from there to Hel, the city of the Netherworld, where he must save the rest of his people, as well as the love of his life, Rala.

This book was a real find, and I picked it purely because the cover stood out from the rest of the adult fiction. There are pictures throughout the story, of each of the main characters, and various random bits, like when Rumo steps into a pitch-black tent, the story is printed white on black. Things like that amuse me, so long as they don't overwhelm the story.

Year total: 6 (other books can seen here)
Date Finished: March 3, 2007