Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout

At our local Co-op they have three big bookshelves that are used for a book exchange. I skimmed it a few times but never actually brought any books or saw any I was particularly interested in. The a few weeks ago I say Olive Kitteridge (as well as a Val McDermid novel) on the shelf and had to take it. I promised myself I would bring in two to replace them the next time I came in…..I haven’t yet but promise to next week when I do my next grocery shop. I had heard really good things about this novel. I book friend of mine in Korea loved it so it has been on my list for a while. It took me two days to read it – quite a shorter amount of time then it has taken me to read anything lately.

Amazon.com says, “Heart-wrenching, penetrating portrait of ordinary coastal Mainers living lives of quiet grief intermingled with flashes of human connection. The opening Pharmacy focuses on terse, dry junior high-school teacher Olive Kitteridge and her gregarious pharmacist husband, Henry, both of whom have survived the loss of a psychologically damaged parent, and both of whom suffer painful attractions to co-workers. Their son, Christopher, takes center stage in A Little Burst, which describes his wedding in humorous, somewhat disturbing detail, and in Security, where Olive, in her 70s, visits Christopher and his family in New York. Strout's fiction showcases her ability to reveal through familiar details—the mother-of-the-groom's wedding dress, a grandmother's disapproving observations of how her grandchildren are raised—the seeds of tragedy. Themes of suicide, depression, bad communication, aging and love, run through these stories, none more vivid or touching than Incoming Tide, where Olive chats with former student Kevin Coulson as they watch waitress Patty Howe by the seashore, all three struggling with their own misgivings about life.”

I was surprised that I liked this book so much because it is basically short stories tied together by this one woman, Olive Kitteridge. I usually hate short stories. Actually hate is not the most accurate word because as soon as I see a book is short stories I don’t even bother with it – even if they are by my favorite author. There is something about them that just bothers me. I love the length of novels and the meat to them; I don’t feel I get that with short stories.

This book was sad. There were elements of it that broke my heart and characters that lead such a lonely life that I found it hard to read. I loved that sometimes Olive Kitteridge was a seen presence in the novel and other times it was just her words that stayed with the character. I liked Olive’s character; she was hard-headed and a little mean sometimes but you saw her through her own eyes as well as other characters and got to know her heart and the life she lead. You got to see her heart break when she lost not one but two loves.

I liked this book. It was a good read, not really light but somewhere in the middle.


Rating - 3

Island Beneath The Sea - Isabel Allende

Once again I have been buying more books then I have time to read. I was taking a client in for an appointment last week and realized that I would have over an hour to wait for her. It was a hot sunny day and I had no book! I went to the local bookstore and picked out 3 new books (I had a really hard time picking one – so I got three!). As soon as I saw Isabel Allende’s newest novel I had to get it. I adore Isabel Allende. Her books make me feel wonderful and make me want to travel Latin America. Now from reading Island Beneath The Sea I really want to travel to the Dominican Republic and back to New Orleans.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon.com “Zarité, called Tété, is born into slavery in the colony of Saint-Domingue, where enslaved Africans are worked to death by the thousands, and European men prey on women of color. So it is with Tété and her “master,” the deeply conflicted plantation owner Toulouse Valmorain, who relies on her for everything from coerced sex to caring for his demented first wife, his legitimate son, and their off-the-record daughter. When the slave uprising that gives birth to the free black republic of Haiti erupts, Toulouse, Tété, and the children flee to Cuba, then to New Orleans. In a many-faceted plot, Allende animates irresistible characters authentic in their emotional turmoil and pragmatic adaptability. She also captures the racial, sexual, and entrepreneurial dynamics of each society in sensuous detail while masterfully dramatizing the psychic wounds of slavery”.

I loved this book. For starters the cover is beautiful and makes you want to read it every time you look at it. I love books that have amazing covers – it makes all the difference when deciding what to buy and what not to. This book is wonderfully written. It is set in Haiti (before it was Haiti) and is centered around a slave named Zarite. In the first page of the book we discover that she is now free – as are her children – and the book tells the story of how she became free.

There are some amazing characters in this book and some characters that I just hated. This always happens in books that discuss slavery. In modern times it is hard to even imagine people feeling that others can be owned and are less then human (even though in some countries it still happens – especially when looking at domestic workers brought from developing countries and trafficking for prostitution). My favorite character was a tie between Violette and Sancho. They both had big personalities and were kind hearted people who knew what they wanted.

This book made me feel the heat of the tropics and the sadness that Zarite felt when her child was taken away. To make me feel that, Isabel Allende wrote with beauty and with knowledge. I would definitely recommend this novel to everyone I know!

Rating - 4

I Feel Bad About My Neck - Nora Ephron

I went to the Yellowknife Library Book Sale last week and picked up a few books (maybe about 12). I was away for the first days of the book sale so I only got there on the last day. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get there right away because I LOVE book sales. But I did get a few winners. On like this book by Nora Ephron. It had been on my list for a while and I am glad I got a copy.

Amazon.com states "With 15 essays in 160 pages, this collection is short, a thoughtful concession to pre- and post-menopausal women (who else is there?), like herself, who "can't read a word on the pill bottle," follow a thought to a conclusion, or remember the thought after not being able to read the pill bottle. Ephron drives the truth home like a nail in your soon-to-be-bought coffin: "Plus, you can't wear a bikini." But just as despair sets in, she admits to using "quite a lot of bath oil... I'm as smooth as silk." Yes, she is. This is aging lite—but that might be the answer."

This was a fun book to read. I am not a middle-aged woman but I could understand many of the things Nora Ehpron was writing about. It was a really funny book but there were many sad parts as well. A lot on growing older and living your life fully because you don't know what can happen. One of the most relatable parts of the book was an essay about books themselves. She writes about the feeling you got as a child when you read books and you could read them over and over again and wish you were in them and a part of them. Ms. Ephron writes about how hard it is to get that feeling when you get older with books but when you do it is AMAZING. I agree. There are a few books that I have read in the last few years that have taken me to another place and when I have to do something else I am frustrated that I can't just be reading the book. That has happened with Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and of course the Harry Potter series. Harry Potter was a group a books that I found myself continuously thinking about when I wasn't reading it.

All in all it was a book I picked up to read a few essay's every now and then. I like having one of those books around that I can read a few pages and put down and really think about it.

Rating - 3

Cockroach - Rawi Hage

I saw this book at the Winnipeg Airport and as soon as I saw who the author was I knew I had to have it. I had read the first novel by Rawi Hage called DeNiro’s Game when I was living in Turkey. I had borrowed it from a friend who said it was amazing – he was right. I started this one hoping it would be the same.

Amazon.com states, “After trying and failing to kill himself, an unnamed narrator who believes himself to be part cockroach is compelled to attend counseling sessions with an earnest and alluring therapist. As he unspools his personal history—from his apprenticeship with the thief Abou-Roro to the tragic miscalculation that led him to flee his home country—the narrator, reluctant to tell his story (we never learn where the narrator is from, and inconsistencies in his tale cast doubt upon his honesty), scuttles through the stories of others, recounting secrets both confidentially shared and invasively discovered. Unable to support himself on burglary alone, the narrator takes a job as a busboy, but runs into complications after discovering his lover's connection to the restaurant's most prominent customer.”

This book is different from DeNiro’s Game in that it was more of the narrator’s thoughts in the book and less dialogue – and since the narrator is a little bit crazy the thoughts tend to not make much sense sometimes or be really, really aggressive. The narrator is not a very likeable character. He does some things that I found really scary (especially the breaking into homes and stalking people – especially women) and made me look a bit differently at the world. Its always the sign of a good book when it makes you see your surroundings differently – which is strange that it took me a book as I am a social worker and see some really crazy things all the time.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the narrator speaking with his counselor about his past in Lebanon. The things that are common place in Lebanon are so different in Canada. Especially the amount of violence that happens when going through war – and I don’t just mean violence in the country but violence in the home and between people who are friends. There are just so many ways that people live that are foreign to me. I can’t imagine waking up everyday expecting violence and fear. I have read many books that deal with time periods of war but I feel like the current ones hit home even more.

This book was a good read and I would recommend it to people who have some time to go deeply into a novel – and not only be looking for a quick escape.

Rating - 4

Twenties Girl - Sophie Kinsella

I bought this book in the Edmonton Airport on my way to my excellent vacation in Las Vegas. I started reading it a bit on the way to Vegas but never really got into it until my flight home. I couldn't out it down after I started. I laughed out loud soooo many times that I think I scared the guy next to me (I was also pretty sick so that might have scared him as well).

Amazon.ca says "Lara Lington has always had an overactive imagination, but suddenly that imagination seems to be in overdrive. Normal professional twenty-something young women don’t get visited by ghosts. Or do they?
When the spirit of Lara’s great-aunt Sadie–a feisty, demanding girl with firm ideas about fashion, love, and the right way to dance–mysteriously appears, she has one last request: Lara must find a missing necklace that had been in Sadie’s possession for more than seventy-five years, and Sadie cannot rest without it. Lara, on the other hand, has a number of ongoing distractions. Her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, her start-up company is floundering, and she’s just been dumped by the “perfect” man."

This was a really fun, girly book. I always love Sophie Kinsella's books but I always tend to forget how much I love them until I read the newest one. They make me feel happy and make me feel like perhaps some sort of true love is out there - even if you have to go through many bad relationships to find it.

Lara would be my favorite character. She was very much like some woman that I know - especially when it came to her craziness surrounding trying to get her boyfriend back. I know tons of women who would easily make their man come back to them if they could - even if it wasn't real feelings on their part. I just loved how this book was written and how Lara changed throughout the novel. This could be one of my favorite Sophie Kinsella books. I could see this making an excellent movie and I hope that we see some more Sophie Kinsella books turned into movies!!

Rating - 4

People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

I started reading this book when I was in Singapore last year. My friend Lia had it and I only got through the first few chapters when it was time for me to leave. I bought it a few months back but never picked it up until the other day. I always tell people that they should read it when they are looking at books in my shelf because I enjoyed the first bit so much. I thought it was time to read it my self.

Amazon.com writes, “One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure.”

This book was a really enjoyable read. I loved how the story went from modern day book expert Hanna to the other people whose lives the Haggadah has touched in the past. It was amazing how this one book survived all the people that tried to destroy it. It was just a book but it felt more magical then that. There were so many amazing characters in the book but one that really stood out to me was Lola. Lola was a Jewish teenager who lived in Sarajevo during WWII. I loved how strong she was and how she kept herself alive against all odds. She was a beautiful character.

One thing I really liked about the book was the harmony between the Jewish and Muslim characters. The Haggadah was saved by Muslim scholars a few times – people risked their lives to save a book that was not part of their own faith. I found that amazing and inspiring. I also enjoyed how Geraldine Brooks wrote the book. She is a beautiful writer. I have read a few of her works previously and really enjoyed them. The book really flowed and I loved how Hanna would find a clue about the book and then there would be a chapter about the book from an earlier time period and the people who had it.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone and everyone. It is one of those books that takes you to another place and makes you want to travel, see the world and meet all the amazing people that you can.

Rating - 4

Nikolski - Nicolas Dickner

I ordered this book as soon as the Canada Reads list came out in January. I had every intention of reading all of the Canada Reads contestants but didn’t quite get there – in fact I never ended up reading one of them. I guess I was going through I rough reading patch that meant my mind could only handle mysteries. But when the winner was announced last week I decided that it would be my next read. And what a great choice it was.

Amazon.com states, “An odd tale of missed connections, restlessness and the search for home that follows three quirky Montrealites. One story line follows a nameless narrator who works in a second-hand Montreal bookshop and reveres an inexpensive compass sent to him when he was a child by his absent father. Meanwhile, Noah, who grew up in the care of a transient single mother, arrives in Montreal to study archeology and rents a room from the owner of a fish shop. Then there's Joyce, a young woman from a family that claims pirate origins, who washes up in Montreal, finds work in the fish shop and begins her own version of living the family legend. The characters' lives brush up against one another (largely thanks to a book about pirates that, through various personal connections, ends up as the lightly binding force of the three characters' fates) but—in a nice subversion of the intersecting fates arc—don't loudly collide.”

I really enjoyed this book. It took me about 2 days to finish it – the fastest I have read a book in a long time. I love Canadian books – there is something about them that makes me feel proud and happy to be Canadian. I am always looking for pieces of myself in them and get so excited if Nova Scotia is mentioned. This book was mainly set in Montreal and as I have lived there for a few short months I could recognize some of the places. Montreal is a wonderful setting for a novel – there are so many different kinds of people and languages.

I loved all the characters in this book. They were well developed and made me wish the story didn’t end. One of my favorite parts is Noah writing letters to his mom and addressing them General Delivery wherever he thinks she may be now (she is a roamer and never has a fixed address). I think it would be crazy to look randomly at a map and send your mother a letter there. This novel made me realize how randomly we meet people in life but there are some people we are met to meet.

I think this was a great choice for Canada Reads winner – but I haven’t read the other ones yet so my opinion may change afterwards!!

Rating - 4

The Cruelest Month - Louise Penny

After reading the a Louise Penny mystery a month or so back I went to the library and got another one because I enjoyed this the last one so much! I am not reading them in order but I don’t really feel like it is necessary to understand what is going on. I still haven’t even read the first one from this series!

Amazon.com says, “Chief Insp. Armand Gamache and his team investigate another bizarre crime in the tiny Québec village of Three Pines. As the townspeople gather in the abandoned and perhaps haunted Hadley house for a séance with a visiting psychic, Madeleine Favreau collapses, apparently dead of fright. No one has a harsh word to say about Madeleine, but Gamache knows there's more to the case than meets the eye. Complicating his inquiry are the repercussions of Gamache having accused his popular superior at the Sûreté du Québec of heinous crimes in a previous case. Fearing there might be a mole on his team, Gamache works not only to solve the murder but to clear his name.”

This novel was set in April, when the weather is warming up and the snow is melting. It made me excited to read because it will be April here soon (not that I think the Northwest Territories will exactly be snow free come April!). As I said in previous reviews of this series – I love the way the small town of Three Pines is depicted. It is beautiful and I want to live in a place nestled away from the world but not too far away that I can’t get books! This novel made me want to get a café mocha and sit outside and listen to music or read a wonderful book.

This novel was a bit supernatural, there was accusations of witchcraft and murder. There were some dark points but some really funny ones as well. I feel like I am becoming friends with this characters with every page I read. Gamache is still one of my favorite characters. I love how he treats the people he works with and the people in the community. You can tell the people in Three Pines love him – even if he does investigate a ridiculous amount of murders in such a small town.

I am jumping off the murder-mystery train with the next book I plan on reading – but I cant promise I will be off it for long!

Rating - 4

Gods Behaving Badly - Marie Phillips

I really had no idea what this book was about when I picked it up at the Yellowknife Library book sale. I knew it was on my To Be Read list so I bought it. I was looking over my book shelves looking for a good read (that wasn’t a mystery as I have been tending to read only those lately and really need to broaden my horizons) and my eyes found this. A friend was over and she said she had read it and that it was hilarious. I thought that was exactly what I needed and I was right!


Amazon.com says, “The Greek gods and goddesses living in a tumbledown house in modern-day London and facing a very serious problem: their powers are waning, and immortality does not seem guaranteed. In between looking for work and keeping house, the ancient family is still up to its oldest pursuit: crossing and double-crossing each other. Apollo, who has been cosmically bored for centuries, has been appearing as a television psychic in a bid for stardom. His aunt Aphrodite, a phone-sex worker, sabotages him by having her son Eros shoot him with an arrow of love, making him fall for a very ordinary mortal-a cleaning woman named Alice, who happens to be in love with Neil, another nice, retiring mortal. When Artemis-the goddess of the moon, chastity and the hunt, who has been working as a dog walker-hires Alice to tidy up, the household is set to combust, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar.”

This book made me laugh out loud within the first few pages. It may not be a book for people who are offended easily though. There are some really funny sex scenes between the gods and goddesses and you always have to kind of forget that they are all related some how. I really liked Apollo. He was so self-centered and ridiculous and the most absurd things came from his mouth that I couldn’t stop laughing.

Artemis was also an awesome character. The scene where she has to fight the 3 headed dog of the underworld and how excited she was to do it was really funny. I also loved how she opened up to the mortals by the end of the book and talked with Neil about her own stuff.

Alice was a little too prim and proper for my taste but I do say she was probably needed in the story to balance the dirtiness of the gods and goddesses. I loved the parts of the novel with her in the underworld. I never pictured anything like what she was experiencing before so it made my imagination work a little harder.

All in all it was a really well written fun book. A good laugh and I would definitely recommend it!

Rating - 4

The Resurrectionist - James Bradley

I bought this book in England last summer and was excited to start reading it. I don’t believe that it is sold in Canada (it wasn’t on amazon anyway. Bookoffers.com describes the book, “London, 1826: Gabriel Swift has left behind his father’s failures to study with Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city’s anatomists. It is his chance to find advancement by making a name for himself. But instead he finds himself drawn to his master’s nemesis, Lucan, the most powerful of the city’s resurrectionists and ruler of its trade in stolen bodies. Dismissed by his master, Gabriel descends into the violence and corruption of London’s underworld, a place where everything and everyone is for sale, and where – as Gabriel discovers – the taking of a life is easier than it might seem.”

This book was really fun to read in the beginning. I liked that the chapters were short and that I had time to absorb what was happening in each chapter. I found the subject matter really interesting and was waiting for a great gothic story. It didn’t seem to turn out like that though. I had read reviews about the book while I was in the middle of it and those reviewers said that the book seemed like it was missing something or was edited down so it was shorter. I totally agree. I felt the meat of the novel wasn’t there and it left me wondering. I thought the characters were interesting but there was not a lot of depth to them. This especially goes with the character of Lucan. I wish there had of been more character development with him because he would have made an excellent villain. I also feel that I never really figured out what the feud was between Poll and Lucan so that left me a little confused. I feel like the story could have been amazing if more was added to it.

All in all it was an okay read. I don’t know if I would recommend it as there are quite a few other books in the same genre that are much better.

Rating - 2

Ghosts of India (Doctor Who) - Mark Morris

Synopsis from Amazon.com says "India in 1947 is a country in the grip of chaos, torn apart by internal strife. When the Doctor and Donna arrive in Calcutta, they are instantly swept up in violent events. Barely escaping with their lives, they discover that the city is rife with tales of 'half-made men', who roam the streets at night and steal people away. With help from India's great spiritual leader, Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi, the Doctor and Donna set out to investigate these rumors. What is the real truth behind the 'half-made men'? Why is Gandhi's role in history under threat? And has an ancient, all-powerful god destruction really come back to wreak his vengeance upon the Earth?"

I really enjoy reading the Doctor Who series. I always feel like I am watching an episode and I can hear the characters voices in my head. I picked this one up when I was in England last summer and am now wishing I had bought a few more. I love the Doctor Who books that are set on Earth and involve important characters. They are fun to read. Gandhi is a main character in this one and I love how he ties everything up in the end and basically saves the world ( I am not giving anything away as the world is always saved at the end of Doctor Who!). They write tons of these books so there are always more to read.

Its a really great series if you are up on Doctor Who - you kinda need to know what is going on and who a lot of the characters are to understand.

Rating - 3

A Brutal Telling - Louise Penny

The synopsis from Amazon.com is "When the body of an unknown old man turns up in a bistro in the Quebec village of Three Pines, Chief Insp. Armand Gamache investigates. At a cabin in the woods apparently belonging to the dead man, Gamache and his team are shocked to discover the remote building is full of priceless antiquities, from first edition books to European treasures thought to have disappeared during WWII. When suspicion falls on one of Three Pines' most prominent citizens, it's up to Gamache to sift through the lies and uncover the truth."

This is the second book of the Chief Insp. Gamache series that I have read. I haven't read them in order as this is the fifth one. But you don't even really have to read them in order to find the enjoyable. I loved this book. I think I loved everything about it. I feel as it has been awhile since I was swept up in a book and didn't want to let it go. The novel is set in a small village in Quebec and the way the author describes the setting is beautiful. I wanted to move to this little town myself and spend my days reading books by a fire and eating gourmet food at the local cafe. There was something lovely about Louise Penny's writing that made me smile and made me wish the book wouldn't end. I loved that it was Canadian.

The characters of this book are also all unique and memorable. Ruth, the meanest woman in town who is also one of Canada's most celebrated poets, is shown in a different light in this novel for only one paragraph - but it is a paragraph I will remember when I read future books that involve her. The characters in The Brutal Telling were ones that I cannot wait to meet again and hope that I get to spend more time with in the future.

I highly recommend this mystery novel. It had a captivating story and was very well written. Definitely a book I stayed up late reading!!!

Rating - 4

The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett

A synopsis from Amazon.com says "Queen Elizabeth II walks into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the dawn of her sensibility... mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched by the prime minister and the queen's staff to dispatch Norman and discourage the queen's preoccupation with books. Ultimately, it is her own growing self-awareness that leads her away from reading and toward writing, with astonishing results."

This was an excellent read. It has been quite a few months since I have just sat down and read a whole book. I know this is a novella (so it had a little over 100 pages) but it was still nice to sit down and read a whole book with no interruptions. I feel like this might get me back on track for reading as I have been doing a pretty terrible job so far in 2010. What I loved about this book was that it was well written and the characters were very funny. I loved the plot of the Prime Minister against the Queen's reading - seeing it as common and disruptive for the whole nation.

At one point in the book someone remarks to the Queen that reading is a very selfish pastime - I can see that a bit. I know that when I read I go somewhere else where I don't want to be disturbed and that no one else can really go. It is all about me. And I don't think there is anything wrong with that. The Queen had been selfless for many years and now that she was in her late seventies she needed sometime for her. I loved the way the book ended. I had to rad the last page 2 times to really get the ending, I loved that it ended abruptly and left you thinking. I was hoping that the Queen would start her own national book club that would become just as popular as Oprah!

All in all this was a fun, fast and easy read.

Rating - 4

The Book Of Air And Shadows - Michael Gruber

Amazon.com states "Tap-tapping the keys and out come the words on this little screen, and who will read them I hardly know. I could be dead by the time anyone actually gets to read them, as dead as, say, Tolstoy. Or Shakespeare. Does it matter, when you read, if the person who wrote still lives? These are the words of Jake Mishkin, whose seemingly innocent job as an intellectual property lawyer has put him at the centre of a deadly conspiracy and hunt to find a priceless treasure connected to William Shakespeare. As he awaits a killer-or killers-unknown, Jake writes an account of the events that led to this deadly endgame, a frantic chase that began when a fire in an antiquarian bookstore revealed the hiding place of letters containing a shocking secret, concealed for four hundred years. In a frantic race from New York to England and Switzerland, Jake finds himself matching wits with a shadowy figure who seems to anticipate his every move. What at first seems like a thrilling puzzle waiting to be deciphered soon turns into a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, where no one -- not family, not friends, not lovers -- is to be trusted."

This had the potential to be a great book. The story was there, the characters were really interesting and the writing was pretty good. I guess the problem was that the book was too long for the amount of story that was there. It was 450+ pages and could have been finished in 300. It dragged on. It really sucks because I really loved the characters in the beginning, Jake Mishkin is such an awesome character. I loved how I was always surprised by his character and how he didn't fit into any box that I created for him in my mind. This was a really character driven book - everyone had quirks and there was a lot of humour in them.

After every chapter there is a chapter written by Bracegirdle, a man from the 1600's. This is written in old English and I found it pretty hard to get into. To be honest I totally skimmed some of these chapters. I kept wanting to get to the chapters with the action - cause there was plenty of that, I am not sure even now how I really feel about the book. I wanted to like it a lot more then I actually did. Maybe my hopes are to high for stories involving mysteries and books - I have read so many excellent ones that I expect them all to be that way.

Rating - 3

End Of The Year Stats

So another year is gone. I can't believe we are in 2010. Time is actually flying by. I read so many good books this year. I have to say that this could be my best year for reading and it will be hard to beat the amount of good books (and the quantity of books) that I read in 2009.

Here are the books for 2009:

Number of Books Read = 125

Fiction = 111
Non Fiction = 14

Written By Men = 52
Written By Women = 73

Audiobooks = 4

My favorite book of the year is pretty hard to pick because I enjoyed so many for different reasons. But one book that stands out for me and that I will prpbaly re-read is The Name Of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

I didn't finish all the Book Challenges that set out for myself this year. I finished What;s In A Name 2009, 100 Book Reading Challenge and 2009 Chick Lit Challenge.

One of my major goals for next year is to read more non fiction. I know that I say this every year but I still want to try. I still having read a book in 2010 yet....I wonder which one I will choose!