2015 Reading Log

1. Clara and Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

2. Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

3. So You Want to Be a P.I. by Pamela Beason

4. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

5. Ross Poldark by Winston Graham

6. Demelza by Winston Graham

7. The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece by Jonathan Harr

8. The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits by Simon Schama

9. A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Clara and Mr. Tiffany and Loving Frank were alike in that they were novels that dealt with the lives of prominent artists. I feel like Clara and Mr. Tiffany relied far less on historical fact and more on the imagination of the artist, which made it a more effective work of fiction. I very much enjoyed both, though, and this is an example of algorithms suggesting things that will appeal.

I read Les Misérables by Victor Hugo as one of my classic self assignments. I didn’t intend to love it as deeply as I do. The thing you don’t get very much of in the musical and movie adaptations is the sheer goodness of Jean Valjean. I had such sympathy for him. It’s a gorgeous piece of writing, as well. I had a good translation, but I believe the excellence will convey even in inferior translations.

I started reading the Poldark series by Winston Graham because I’d like the first season of the mini series starring Aiden Turner so well, but the character of Ross makes me so damned angry, I not only stopped reading the books, I stopped watching the show as well. The final series is set to air soon, so I really should catch up, but Ross makes my blood boil.

The Lost Painting: The Quest for a Caravaggio Masterpiece was a book I picked up when I started researching for my current novel-in-progress. It’s very engaging, for a work of non-fiction, and I owe a lot of inspiration to this book.

The Face of Britain: The Nation through its Portraits was a bit of a disappointment because I expected the audiobook to be fully narrated by Simon Schama and it is not. Only the foreword and certain chapters are narrated by him, which is a shame, because I could listen to him talk about art for hours on end and never get bored.

A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a classic self-assignment. I’d never read any of the Sherlock Holmes novels before, so I thought it was high time I dig into them. I found it a surprisingly easy read and it was interesting to read the source material to the many adaptations I’d seen, some more faithful than others. I’ve always adored the character of Sherlock in his many, many iterations.

2014 Reading Log

1. Jane Eyre's Husband - The Life of Edward Rochester by Tara Bradley

2. War and Peace* by Leo Tolstoy

3. Raging Heat by Richard Castle

4. Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

5. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

7. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

8. The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton

The thriving cottage industry of Jane Austen (etc) re-tellings isn’t a genre I generally engage with, but I did enjoy this soapy romance take on telling Rochester’s side of Jane Eyre. I think it works a little too hard to absolve him of some of his douchier behaviors, though. Rochester is a bad man. He gaslights Jane and manipulates her and is a wee bit emotionally abusive, and none of that can be explained away by being duped into getting into a bad relationship.

Motherfucking War and Peace. I cannot make any headway in this thing. I need like a murder board with photos of each character and all the variations on their names to keep everything straight as I read. I’ve been told that once you get into it, it’s a good book, but I can’t get into it.

I have no memory whatsoever of reading Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan, but it ticks all the boxes for things I should love. Apparently, it’s the story of a strong, independent American woman’s affair with Robert Louis Stevenson, but it made absolutely no impression on me.

I must have decided to re-read the Hunger Games trilogy in advance of one of the movie’s release dates. Never a bad choice.

The Miniaturist by Jesse Burton is an interesting novel. I liked it and was engrossed with the setting and the mystery, but there were some issues. I feel like the ending was rushed, and all of the threads weren’t adequately tied up at the end. I find it fascinating that it was a NaNoWriMo novel, of sorts. The author worked on it over several years during NaNo.

2013 Reading Log

1. 1776 by David McCullough

2. The Host by Stephenie Meyer

3. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

4. Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

6. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

7. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

8. Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures by Amber Dusick

9. The Magician’s Assistant by Anne Patchett

I love reading about history, but it’s not often written in a way that is entertaining for laypeople. David McCullough had the rare ability to impart a lot of knowledge in an entertaining way. He’s truly a master of non-fiction writing, and 1776 should be required reading for all Americans.

I read The Host by Stephenie Meyer because I’d like the Twilight books so much. It’s not nearly as endearing as the Twilight books were. I appreciated the science fiction concept, but the problematic relationships in this book had me rethinking how truly fucked up the characters and relationships in Twilight were as well. The mental gymnastics Meyer goes through to excuse domestic violence is a huge red flag.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe was largely forgettable. I did enjoy how the narrative bounced back and forth from the past to the present, but I remember thinking some of the magical realism was a bit of a cop out and the story would have been better without the main character’s visions.

Galileo’s Daughter was interesting, and quite vivid, but there were some pacing issues that brought me out of the story.

Writing is not engrossing, but fluid enough even while incorporating lengthy excerpts from historical sources.

—From my Goodreads review of Galileo’s Daughter

The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins was all anyone could talk about, so I picked it up expecting it to be over-rated. I was surprised by how much I connected with it. I’m fairly certain that I’d seen the first movie before reading the books. They were such quick reads, and I, like so many, really connected with the character of Katniss.

Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures by Amber Dusick was a welcome bit of humor while raising a toddler. It is exactly what the title says it is, and I highly recommend it.

The Magician’s Assistant is perhaps not Anne Patchett’s best work, but it creates a fun world to escape to and weaves a competent mystery.