librarytart

Books read outside the blog’s ‘rules’ in 2009

January

1.  Christos Tsiolkas ~ The Slap. Fiction. Suburban life under the  microscope when a child is slapped at a barbecue. Outstanding.
2. John Boyne ~ The Thief of Time. Fiction. A man who’s lived for more than 200 years recounts his life and attempt to stop a family curse. Interesting.
3. Margaret Atwood ~ Cat’s Eye. Fiction. Ageing painter examines her life and particularly her childhood friends who still haunt. Good but not my favourite Atwood by any means.

February

4.  Robert Dessaix ~ Arabesques. Memoir. Travels through Europe and northern Africa following loosely on the trail of Andre Gide. A gorgeous book.
5. Michel Faber ~ The Crimson Petal and the White. Fiction. Weighty tome about the merging of lower class prostitutes and the upper class in Victorian-era London. Became very, very long.
6. Jean Bedford ~ Country Girl Again. Fiction. Just started after a chance sighting on the web made it appear in my mailbox!
7. Department of Veterans’ Affairs ~ Australians on the Western Front. Non-fiction. Five image-rich volumes of Australia’s campaigns on the Western Front during WWI, reviewed for Defence Family Matters magazine. Stunning.
8. Edited by David Marr ~ The Best Australian Essays 2008. Compilation. Reportage and insights. A largely lovely gathering.
9. Vladimir Nabokov ~ Speak, Memory. Memoir. Meandering discussions from family to butterflies mixed with needle-sharp opinion. One of the great memoirs.

March

10. Doris Lessing ~ Love, Again. Fiction. Bird’s eye examination of love and passion from the perspective of a sixty-year-old woman. Wise and engaging.
11. Gabrielle Carey ~ So Many Selves. Memoir. Honest and reflective memoir from co-authoring Puberty Blues to falling in love and having a child in Mexico. An unexpected gem.
12. Shere Hite ~ The Hite Report on Shere Hite. Interesting autobiography about the author’s childhood and career with only tiny hints of her own personal life.

April

13. Paul Auster ~ The Book of Illusions. Fiction. I’m on an Auster kick at the moment. Interesting stories within stories and well wrapped up.
14. Siri Hustvedt ~ The Sorrows of an American. Fiction. Intelligent and quintessentially American story about family secrets, tragedy and flawed lives.
15. Kasey Edwards ~ Thirty-Something and Over It. Based on non-fiction. Simplistic title hides an honest and refreshing look at dissatisfaction with life.
16. David Wellington ~ 13 Bullets. Fiction. Enjoyable, action-filled adventures with vampires, the undead and the cops trying to hunt them down.
17. Debra Adelaide ~ The Household Guide to Dying. Fiction. Re-read of a new favourite.
18. Kate Legge ~ The Marriage Club. Fiction. Insightful analysis of a collapsing marriage and secrets uncovered after death.

May

19. Patrick Gale ~ Rough Music. Fiction. My new favourite Gale and one of my new favourite books. Past and present collide and a repressed family explodes with secrets.
20. T Greenwood ~ Two Rivers. Fiction. Bought after a rave review about widower raising a daughter amid family secrets and surprises. Well rendered but not compelling.
21. Charlaine Harris ~ Dead Until Dark. Fiction. Joyous antidote to other overhyped and underwritten vampire novels. Hurrah!
22. Charlaine Harris ~ Living Dead in Dallas. Fiction. Ditto. More hurrahs!
23. Kate Holden ~ In My Skin. Memoir. Fascinating in a well-written and car crash-like way about years of heroin abuse and prostitution.
24. Andrea Goldsmith ~ Reunion. Fiction. Currently reading.
25. Elizabeth Gilbert ~ Eat, Pray, Love. Memoir. I think i was sold a dud copy as this cannot have sold five million copies. Surely not. 10% wisdom/90% self absorption.

June

26. Charlotte Roche ~ Wetlands. Fiction. Waited so long for the translated version that I considered learning German. With that level of anticipation, the book could only be a disappointment. And it was.
27. Charlaine Harris ~ Club Dead. Fiction. Entertaining but not to the extent of the first two Sookie Stackhouse novels.
28. Charlaine Harris ~ Dead to the World. Fiction. Best yet with well-paced storyline and a hapless Eric in a clever character manipulation.

July

29. Ken Follett ~ The Pillars of the Earth. Fiction. Was like a long bike race: was glad it ended but glad I made the effort.
30-34. Charlaine Harris ~ The remaining five books in the Sookie Stackhouse series. Fiction. Enjoyable reading.

August

35. Nam Le ~ The Boat. Fiction. Award-winning series of short stories ranged from very good to sublime.
36. Vladimir Nabokov ~ The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov. Fiction. A mixed bag, but my expectations of him have always been impossibly high so I was set up for some disappointments.

September

37. Nancy Bush ~ Knitted Lace of Estonia. Non-fiction/craft. I wouldn’t usually include a craft book but the sections detailing Estonia’s political history, culture, geography and background of hand crafts was extensive and fascinating.

October

38. Krissy Kneen ~ Affection. Fiction. This is a heart-felt and beautiful memoir. One of my favourite reads this year.
39. David Eagleman ~ Sum. Fiction. Daring, challenging series of short essays on the existence and composition of the afterlife. Tiny book, hugely entertaining.
40. Petina Gappah~ An Elegy for Easterly. Fiction. Knock-out series of short stories set in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. Recommended and I keep dipping back into the book — Gappah has a mastery of what to write and what to leave out and allow the reader to see and imagine.

November

41. Catherine Millet ~ Jealousy. Non-fiction. Wellllllllllll, I don’t know yet if it’s 185 pages of French philosophy that I can’t digest, or I need to re-read and find the point Millet is making.
42. Audrey Niffenegger ~ Her Fearful Symmetry. Fiction. Overly-fanciful, went well beyond suspension of disbelief and why did you let that happen to the kitten?! Going to the second-hand bookshop.

December

43. Kim Echlin ~ The Disappeared. Fiction. Outstanding prose with perfect sentences, but the hopeless of the main relationship affected me negatively.
44. Aravind Adiga ~ Between the Assassinations. Fiction. Collection of short stories set in India in the period between the assassination of the Gandhi leaders. Interesting but finding less engaging than The White Tiger.