It's been a while ...

So, it's been a while since I posted a blog - almost a month! In case some of you had started to think I'd dropped off he edge of the world, I thought I'd better put down a few lines. I am STILL reading War and Peace on audio (not even halfway through yet), as well as Gone with the Wind in print (about 5/8ths through). I cannot believe how long these books seem to be taking me. I sometimes wonder if the very length of them is somehow having an unforeseen consequence in my reading performance. As I'm thinking "This is going to take me ages to read" every time I pick them up ... am I fulfilling my own prophecy, but even more so? The thing is, I am enjoying them both, but it does make my heart sink a little that I haven't finished either of them as yet, and my challenge for this year is very much slipping through my fingers. I have been very busy both at work and socially over the last month - which tends to mean that my normal reading time hasn't been too productive. At bedtime, I'm too tired to read more than a few pages, and the long lie in on a Saturday hasn't been as long as normal due to a full "dance card". I need to set some serious time aside to crack on - really don't want another month to go by and STILL be reading the same two books. That would make me a very glum girl!

Winnie-the-Pooh (7) - a smile on my face!

So, it's been a bit quiet from me on the blog over the last couple of weeks - it's not that I've not been reading, it's just that I'm reading a couple of monsters ... Gone with the Wind (print), AND, War and Peace (audio). Boy oh boy - they are a bit on the daunting side, just because of the sheer size of them. I am enjoying both books but was starting to feel that I wasn't getting anywhere in terms of "the list" - so, for a bit of light relief, I've just spent a couple of hours reading Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne. I chose the print edition so that I could get the full benefit of the words plus the glorious illustrations by E.H. Shephard. What an absolute treat. I read the whole book with a smile on my face. It is sweet, touching and funny. For those of you who may not know, our eponymous hero is a bear of little brain but a big love of honey (or hunny as he would say). He lives in a wood with a whole host of neighbours - nervous Piglet, know-all Rabbit, wise Owl and sad and sarcastic Eeyore. There are various adventures, usually involving their best human friend - Christopher Robin. It is a study of friendship, language and community. Each chapter is a different adventure - from Pooh trying to disguise himself as a cloud in order to fool the bees guarding their honey, to the whole cast going on an expedition to find the North Pole. I cannot praise this book highly enough and can completely and utterly understand why this book lives long in the hearts and minds of anyone who has read it. A tonic for anyone feeling down in the dumps. I just wish I had children of a certain age to give me an excuse to read it to them (and me) time and time again!

My STAR rating: FIVE.

Length: 161 print pages.
Price I paid: free (borrowed from my local library).
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Good Omens (68) - not so sure myself!

For anyone who has been following this blog for a while, you will already know that I am a self-confessed fan of Terry Pratchett and have been an avid reader of his Discworld novels for many a year, so I was really looking forward to reading Good Omens by the great man himself and Neil Gaiman, which features in 100 Top Reads list. I had no fear that I wouldn't enjoy this book immensely, having also read previous works by Mr Gaiman, however, I found this an "almost" book. Subtitled "The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch", we find ourselves realising that according to Agnes's predictions, the world is about to come to an end. Enter into the arena, the four horsemen of the apocalypse (pestilence has changed his name to pollution to reflect the modern era), a bizarre witch hunter and his new apprentice, the long distant relative of Agnes, and a young boy called Adam, who is actually the son of the Dark Lord - but isn't aware of his prophesied fate. Adam just wants to carry on being the leader of his little gang of friends, but when the opposing forces of good and evil start to close in on him he comes up with a cunning plan which belies his earthly years. There are jokes and I did chuckle - but not nearly enough. It takes a while to get going, and I found it overly long for the actual situation. The last quarter of the tale really perked up, but not enough to salvage it in my eyes. I did enjoy the characters of an angel and a demon who, behind the scenes have been trying to steer humanity to good/evil over the years. They are supposed to be adversaries, but are really the only friends the other has got and the lines between right and wrong are often a bit blurry .. which is maybe the point of the book. However, other characters just didn't do it for me and I didn't think they brought anything to the table. I felt, overall, that this was less than the sum of its parts. Maybe I'd expected too much, or the subject matter was just not for me. Disappointed!

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 402 print pages.
Price I paid: Free - borrowed from a friend
Formats available: print; audio CD unabridged; audio download unabridged; ebook. 

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (30) - off with his head!

I have seen a few adaptations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll on screen, but had never actually read the original work itself. It starts off great - Alice, intrigued by a glimpse of a rabbit who appears to be muttering to himself - falls down a hole, and keeps falling and falling and falling - but remarkably, she isn't at all scared. What begins, as she falls, is an internal dialogue that I found highly entertaining. She bucks herself up and gives herself a good talking to at times, and then at others, pats herself on the back when she realises she understands a tricky word or situation. However, Alice isn't a totally lovable character and her impatience comes out - you can almost feel her stamping her foot in frustration at times - just like a real little girl. This book is a total flight of fancy - with talking creatures such as the white rabbit, the mad hatter and the dormouse, and of course, the royal household of Wonderland - a pack of cards - which has the unenviable task of dealing with the despotic Queen of Hearts who is forever instructing her minions to chop the head off yet another unfortunate soul. Alice finds herself meeting all sorts of creatures in this strange land and manages to keep her head before finding herself back where she started. I found much of this classic children's fantasy amusing, and although I felt it lost its way a little about halfway through, I did enjoy it on the whole, although as the Kindle version I read was just the plain text, I felt I missed out on the glorious illustrations of the print copy.

My STAR rating: THREE.

Length: 160 print pages.
Price I paid: free.
Formats available: print; abridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

Dune (39), by Frank Herbert - sand, worms and fights

Dune is probably one of the most famous science fiction novels ever, but for some reason, I've never thought of reading it - and probably wouldn't have done so if it hadn't featured as one of the books in my challenge this year. However, I would have missed out on an epic tale of treachery, mysticism, love, power and sand! The action centres on a desert planet called Arrakis, and a young 15-year-old called Paul Atreides whose father is a Duke of the Noble House of Atreides. The Duke is made the steward of the planet by the Emperor - a move not enjoyed by House Harkonnen who had previously ruled there. The planet is harsh and not many would chose to live ther if it weren't for it's unique resource - Melange - which enables interstellar travel as well as granting psychic powers and longevity to people who consume it. And so, House Harkonnen plot to get back their position. First Paul's father is killed and then Paul and his mother are cast out into the desert to an assumed death. However, Paul comes across the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who teach him how to survive and he not only becomes one of them but is slowly revealed as much more than a usurped duke. They start to see him as a Messiah when he displays amazing abilities ... abilities that are the result of a very long-term genetic experiment designed to breed a superhuman - an experiment designed by a secretive order of women, one of whom is his mother. His struggle comes to a head (of course) with the big players coming together for a final showdown which will determine the future of the planet and the Empire itself. This really is an epic and is full of intrigues and twists and turns and very large worms! A really good read that transports you to a completely different place, but which, at the root, is full of classic themes. Well worth the effort - and in the audio format I read, which used different voices for the main characters, a real treat!

My STAR rating: FOUR

Length: 624 print pages.
Price I paid: £7.99
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; unabridged audio download; ebook.

The Secret Garden (51) - a book of delights

Who would have thought that such an unprepossessing book as The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett would prove to be such a delight to read! The action starts in India, just at the point when an unloved and unlikeable child, called Mary, loses both her parents to cholera. She is shipped back to England to stay at the large but gloomy house of her uncle - but he doesn't seem to want her either. Left to her own devices, she explores the vast gardens and is intrigued by a walled garden to which there is no entrance. Determined to get her own way (which is what usually happens) she sets out to find a way in, even though she has been told that it is forbidden  - her uncle closed the garden up following the death of his wife. Into Mary's insular world enters a grizzled and grumpy gardener called Ned, a local boy (Dickon) who seems to be able to charm animals, a friendly robin and then, quite unexpectedly, her cousin Colin - who is just as unlikeable and unloved as she is. When they find a way into the secret garden, both it and the unlikely companions start to work a kind of magic on the cousins, who seem to blossom in parallel to the plants and flowers they tend. This is a great book, with a message for everyone - don't brood on dark thoughts, as they will eat away at you and stop you living a full life. Focus on something a little lighter ... and you may just find that suddenly, you are not worrying and festering amongst the darkness anymore and that anything is possible! I so enjoyed this book and I hope that if you haven't read it - you will - definitely worth a few hours of your time.

My STAR rating: FIVE

Length: 288 print pages.
Price I paid: Free on Kindle.
Formats available: print; audio CD; audio download; ebook.

Black Beauty (58) - diary of a horse

Not quite sure what to make of Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell, which I read in print. It's written from the point of view of the horse - Black Beauty - starting when he is a foal and having an idyllic life with his mother. When he is sold to a gentleman, all goes well - he is superbly looked after and works hard for his master and mistress, and makes friends in the stable with a flighty horse called Ginger, and a solid pony called Merryweather. However, nothing lasts for ever and he is moved on, and on and on. He encounters cruelty at times and goodness at others amongst the humans he encounters and the book is certainly a rally cry to improve the lot of the working horse - particularly highlighting how the fashion for certain ways of treating horses could be cruel and could ruin them. Beauty eventually becomes a cab horse in London. He has a great master, but experiences horrific things around him - including a sad end for his old friend Ginger. When his gentle master becomes ill, things take a turn for the worse and he is very nearly sent to the knackers yard. However, a farmer takes a chance on him and nurses him back to health and finds a great final home for Beauty. This is a heart-warming story, but is a bit disjointed for my liking. I can see why youngsters would really enjoy this book, but it's a bit too simplistic for me. If it did anything to improve how horses were regarded and treated in the 1870s (when this book was written), then I applaud it mightily.

My STAR rating: THREE

Length: 263 print pages.
Price I paid: free (borrowed from local library)
Formats available: print; unabridged audio download; abridged audio CD; ebook.