HIVE: Dreadnought by Mark Walden

I love reading about Otto Malpense and his villainous friends. Another great story, featuring a new spaceship which has been hijacked.

I have to confess that I haven't updated for a while - sorry that these are not more thoughtful reviews / reflections!


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The Diamond Takers (The Lady Violet Mysteries No. 3) by Karen Wallace

A good read, if a quick one, and, presumably as I am older than the intended audience, I managed to work out what was going on quite early in the story. However, that did not spoil the enjoyment of this book that I practically read cover to cover on the first day of my holidays! What a fun way to start the week!

The Time Machine - HG Wells

At last! I always enjoyed the film, and now, finally reading this novella, I could picture the film as I read the story ... particularly the scene where the Time Traveller rushes through the years watching the tailor's dummy change fashions. Which is not mentioned in the book ... the rushing years are mentioned, not the dummy. Anyway, I'm glad to have finally read and enjoyed this book!

Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam

Another magical journey through a Pakistani community, this time one based in Britain in the 1970s or so. A sad story, or rather a collection of sad stories, of loves lost, stolen, destroyed, misunderstood, of families at loggerheads, of marriages complicated and confused. An insightful view into a community of closed and off limits, sharing passions and heartaches. Highly recommended, beautifully written.

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Season of the Rainbirds by Nadeem Aslam

This is was also quite bleak in some ways, but in a much lighter and more poetic way. Nineteen years ago a train crashed, and three bags of post have only just been discovered. The running thread through the book is wondering how these newly discovered letters might affect the community, but there are already enough intrigues in this small village in Pakistan, and political unrest in the rest of the country, to cause disruption to lives. A very picturesque book.

(There is also an ongoing "other" story between the main action, that I think I'd need to revisit to fully understand. Was it one of the lost letters? Or the history of one of the characters?)

A mysterious book, then, like the ending.

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Some Kind of Black by Diran Adebayo

I think "gritty realism" best describes this one. Dele is studying in Oxford, but on a trip home to London is roughed up by the police, along with his sister, Dapo, and friend, Concrete. His sister goes into a coma, and the resulting benefit gigs see Dele come into contact with a variety of gangsters and ne'er-do-wells.

This is a book about growing up black in North London in the 90s. Insightful; perhaps a bit too bleak for me at times, though.


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The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver

My second book of the year? This has been a substantial friend, travelling back and forth with me on my commute, revealing its secrets slowly, opening my eyes to its history and making me ask questions, learning more, wanting to find out more. I have enjoyed every bit of it, and am only sad not to enjoy its friendship more now that it is finished. It has left a lacuna in my journey ...


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Toast by Nigel Slater

Yum!

It's taken me a while to read this - I'm sure it's over a year since a colleague lent this to me, I'll need to work out how to get it back now! - but it has not disappointed!

I don't think I've ever read a book that made me salivate so much!! The descriptions of food were sublime, many of the settings and attitudes (particularly early on) so familiar. Made me think back to my favourite foods, the comfort foods of growing up, the "posh, fancy food" of restaurants.

If you like food, and grew up in the seventies and early eighties, you'll surely love this.


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Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Turned into more of a ghost story than I had imagined. Nice. A few twists, some that I could see coming, but a couple that caught me out a bit. Read most of it today - lovely to spend an hour in the bath and an hour in bed last night with a book, then a couple of hours this morning before I had to get up and get on with things. My first book of the year, and a good one. Don't think it's quite as good as The Time Traveler's Wife though ... but I did enjoy the fact it's set in London, and it has made me want to go and explore Highgate Cemetery, and my own local cemetery, more. Maybe tomorrow. When it's not raining.

Another list ...

Wikipedia has a list of the world's best selling books ... And I was curious, how many have I read?!

Over 100 million

1. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein
3. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein
4. Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xuegin
5. On the Three Representations by Jiang Zemin
6. And The There Were None by Agatha Christie

Between 50 and 100 million

7. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis
8. She by H. Rider Haggard
9. Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
10. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
11. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
12. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
13. Steps to Christ by Ellen G White
14. Heidi's Years of Wandering and Longing by Johanna Spyri
15. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr Benjamin Spock
16. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
17. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
18. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

Between 30 and 50 million copies

I've read the following:
- Charlotte's Web by EB White
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
- Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
- The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
- To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

I find these lists very interesting. Glad to know I've read some good books in my time.

Books Read in 2010

My review of books in 2010 ...

• 37. Destination Unknown - Agatha Christie
• 36. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
• 35. Brown Eyes - ed Nicole Moore
• 34. When She Was White - Judith Stone
• 33. Father Brown Stories - GK Chesterton
• 32. Looking for JJ - Anne Cassidy
• 31. The Last Gospel - David Gibbons
• 30. Magic: New Stories - ed JK Rowling
• 29. The Hours - Michael Cunningham
• 28. City of the Beasts - Isabelle Allende
• 27. BogChild - Siobhan Dowd
• 26. A Swift Pure Cry - Siobhan Dowd
• 25. The Shoe Queen - Anna Davis
• 24. Girl Meets Cake - Susie Day
• 23. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
• 22. The London Eye Mystery - Siobhan Dowd
• 21. Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende
• 20. The Amnesia Clinic - James Scudamore
• 19. Inkdeath - Cornelia Funke
• 18. The Queen and I - Sue Townsend
• 17. Semi-Detached - Paul Heathorn
• 16. The Stuff of Nightmares - Malorie Blackman
• 15. City of Stars - Mary Hoffman
• 14. The Water Bearer - Dianne Hofmeyr
• 13. August Heat - Andrea Camilleri
• 12. Escape Velocity - Mark Walden
• 11. The Overlord Protocol - Mark Walden
• 10. Completely Unexpected Tales - Roald Dahl
• 9. The Great Automatic Grammatizator and Other Stories - Roald Dahl
• 8. The Constant Gardener - John Le Carre
• 7. That Thing Around Your Neck - Chimamanda Ndozi Adichi
• 6. The Cypriot - Andreas Koumi
• 5. Inkspell - Cornelia Funke
• 4. We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lionel Shriver
• 3. Flying with Icarus and Other Stories - Curdella Forbes
• 2. The Shakespeare Secret - JL Carrell
• 1. Flood Child - Emily Diamand

So. What have I read this year?

Children's books - 17
Poetry - 1
Short stories - 6
Non-fiction - 1
International - 6
Crime/mystery/suspense - 8 (I think, debateable I suppose!)
Men - 15
Women - 22

Three books by Siobhan Dowd, two anthologies by Roald Dahl, two more in the HIVE series by Mark Walden, two more by Isabel Allende.

Think what is particularly interesting is that I've had quite a tough working year; whilst I'm still travelling on public transport, I've been spending more time marking and less time reading. Also, there have been many times I've been to see the school librarian and simply said, I need something easy that will transport me quickly but not need too much thought, hence lots of children's books and more short stories than normal. I haven't read too many biographies this year; in fact it appears I have only read one non fiction book this year, about Sandra Laing in South Africa.

Next year I hope to read a bit more non-fiction, and some longer novels. I got a couple of great books for Christmas - I hope to read them now and write reviews soon; I also have a couple of good non-fiction books that I need to finish! So, this time next year then for our review of 2011?

Review of 2009

Review of 2008

Review of 2007

Vatican Film List

A slightly shorter film list this time ... 45 films recommended by the Vatican in 1996. With thanks to the Decent Film Guide.

Religion

Andrei Rublev * Andrei Tarkowsky (1969, USSR)

The Mission * Roland Joffé (1986, UK)

La passion de Jeanne d’Arc (The Passion of Joan of Arc) *
Carl T. Dreyer (1928, France)

La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (Life and Passion of Christ) * Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet (1905, France)
Identified on the Vatican film list as La Passion Pathé

Francesco, giullare di Dio (The Flowers of St. Francis / Francis, God’s Jester) * Roberto Rossellini (1950, Italy)

Il vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to Matthew) * Pier Paolo Pasolini (1964, France/Italy)

Thérèse * Alain Cavalier (1986, France)

Ordet (The Word) * Carl T. Dreyer (1955, Denmark)

Offret — Sacrificatio (The Sacrifice) * Andrei Tarkowsky (1986, Sweden/UK/France)

Francesco * Liliana Cavani (1989, Italy/Germany)

Ben-Hur [A Tale of the Christ] * William Wyler (1959, USA)

Babettes gæstebud (Babette’s Feast) * Gabriel Axel (1987, Denmark)

Nazarín * Luis Buñuel (1958, Mexico)

Monsieur Vincent * Maurice Cloche (1947, France)

A Man for All Seasons * Fred Zinnemann (1966, UK)

Values

Gandhi * Richard Attenborough (1982, UK/USA/India)

Intolerance * D. W. Griffith (1916, USA)

Dekalog (The Decalogue) * Krzysztof Kieslowski (1987, Poland)
Identified on the Vatican film list as Il Decalogo

Au Revoir, Les Enfants (Goodbye, Children) * Louis Malle (1987, France)

Dersu Uzala * Akira Kurosawa (1974, Japan)

L’albero degli zoccoli (The Tree of the Wooden Clogs) * Ermanno Olmi (1978, Italy/France)

Roma, città aperta (Open City) * Roberto Rossellini (1946, Italy)

Smultronstället (Wild Strawberries) * Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)

Det sjunde inseglet (The Seventh Seal) * Ingmar Bergman (1957, Sweden)

Chariots of Fire * Hugh Hudson (1981, UK)

Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) * Vittorio de Sica (1948, Italy)

It’s a Wonderful Life * Frank Capra (1946, USA)

Schindler’s List * Steven Spielberg (1993, USA)

On the Waterfront * Elia Kazan (1954, USA)

Biruma No Tategoto (The Burmese Harp) * Kon Ichikawa (1956, Japan)

Art

2001: A Space Odyssey * Stanley Kubrick (1968, UK/USA)

La Strada * Federico Fellini (1954, Italy)

Citizen Kane * Orson Welles (1941, USA)

Metropolis * Fritz Lang (1927, Germany)

Modern Times * Charlie Chaplin (1936, USA)

Napoléon * Abel Gance (1927, Italy)

8½ * Federico Fellini (1963, Italy)

La grande illusion (Grand Illusion) * Jean Renoir (1937, France)

Nosferatu * F. W. Murnau (1922, Germany)

Stagecoach * John Ford (1939, USA)

Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) * Luchino Visconti (1963, Italy/France)

Fantasia * (1940, USA)

The Wizard of Oz * Victor Fleming (1939, USA)

The Lavender Hill Mob * Charles Crichton (1951, UK)

Little Women * George Cukor (1933, USA)

Well, an interesting and varied list. I've seen 15, should have seen more, look forward to seeing others.