11 in 11 Step Challenge Category Completed: 2x Short Stories

1. Santaland Diaries
2. Close Range

I loved the sarcasm in Santaland Diaries, but must say that Close Range stood up to the reputation of Brokeback Mountain. I like reading short stories, it allows you to dip into a new world.

11 in 11 Step Challenge Category Completed: 3x French

French Books

1. Suite Francaise **Group Read **1001 Book
2. Fantomas ** 1001 Book
3. The Immoralist **1001 Book

I think it is too hard to pick the best from these three, all good in different ways, but if I were forced to choose, it'd have to be Suite Francaise. Such great style, good plotlines.

11 in 11 Step Challenge Completed Category: 7x British

Books from the British Isles.

1. Where have all the Boys Gone
2. Dinner for Two
3. Web
4. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce
5. The Flood
6. The Swimming Pool Library ** 1001 book
7. Brazzaville Beach

Only one 1001 book, which wasn't my favourite of the group. I really enjoyed Brazzaville Beach, another good book from William Boyd and the cleverly crafted The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce. The duffer of the bunch would have to be Where have all the Boys Gone, but to be fair it was what I expected of its fluffy cover.

11 in 11 Step Challenge Completed Category: 9x Films

Books adapted for the big screen, small screen and stage.

1. The Diary of a Nobody ** 1001 book
2. The Age of Innocence ** 1001 book
3. The House of Sand and Fog
4. The Rainbow ** 1001 book
5. Timeline
6. The Good Soldier Schweik ** 1001 book
7. Follow the Rabbit Proof Fence
8. The Tales of Beedle the Bard
9. Into the Wild

I was pleased to read 4 1001 books for this category, the best being The Good Soldier Schweik, highly subversive and amusing, the second would be Age of Innocence, beautifully written. As for the rest, I enjoyed the questions posed by Timeline, and re-entering the world of Harry Potter in Beedle the Bard. As for the worst, well, none were clunkers, I just wish that Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence had been fleshed out more, as I so wanted to know more about the story, as well as the author's own.

11 in 11 Step Challenge Completed Category: 10x Crime

Crime, mystery, thriller

1. The Trial **1001 Book
2. The Ministry of Fear
3. The Winter Ghosts
4. The Ghost
5. Restless
6. Bangkok 8
7. The Righteous Men
8. Thirty three Teeth
9. Disco for the Departed
10. The Little Stranger

A good selection of books in all, one 1001. I bumped up this category when my Mum came to visit bearing a stack of thrillers. The top reads would have to be The Ministry of Fear, my find for the challenge as well as Colin Cotterill's Laotian series, though I must say that I enjoyed most of the books. I felt that the weaker books were Bangkok 8 and The Winter Ghosts, both of which were ok, but could have been better.

11 in 11 Step Challenge 3/4 Done

The third quarter for my 11 in 11 Step Challenge has gone quickly as I am on holiday.  I cracked on with my 52x 1001 books in 2011, nearly completing the category.  I had a wee bit of a reshuffle after my Mum brought out another stack of books to Spain, and as I'm going back home for a few days, there will be more changes to come.  This will help with tackling my TBR pile.

Top 1001 books include The Rainbow, following three generations of the Brangwen family from Nottinghamshire, their lives and loves, moving from the 1840s into the 20th Century.  I have managed to get a copy of Women in Love through Bookmooch which continues the story.  I think my favourite, though, was Unless, which just blew me away.  I would also recommend One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and the very funny The Good Soldier Schweik.

As for the rest, I read the thriller The Righteous Men, which was a thriller in the vein of The Da Vinci Code, though more readable.  The Little Stranger was up to Sarah Waters' high standards.  Bitter Grounds was a good read, one of a stack of Latin American books my brother has passed on to me since moving over there for work.  The history of El Salvador came alive with the story of three generations of women.  I also got some long term TBR books off my conscience, the best being Year of Wonders, about the Black Death, and Brazzaville Beach.

As for the other end of the scale, I found On the Road very disappointing, it just didn't live up to the hype for me.

11x 1001 Books


6. Billiards at Half-Past Nine
7. Unless
8. On the Road
9. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich



10x Crime COMPLETE


Crime, mystery, thriller
This has been bumped up due to Mum bringing me a stack of mysteries, and I've done some reshuffling of books.

1. The Trial **1001 Book
2. The Ministry of Fear
3. The Winter Ghosts
4. The Ghost
5. Restless
6. Bangkok 8
7. The Righteous Men
8. Thirty three Teeth
9. Disco for the Departed
10. The Little Stranger

9x Films



Books adapted for the big screen, small screen and stage.
3. The House of Sand and Fog
4. The Rainbow ** 1001 book
5. Timeline
6. The Good Soldier Schweik ** 1001 book

8x British

Books from the British Isles.
5. The Flood
6. The Swimming Pool Library ** 1001 book
7. Brazzaville Beach

7x Spanish


From Spanish speaking world or in Spanish

2. Muerte de Tinta
3. Journey to the Alcarria **1001 Book
4. Bitter Grounds
5. The FARC ** Early Reviewer Programme
6. Still Love in Strange Places

6x Asian Books



None in this quarter

5x Food 'n' Drink


None in this quarter.

4x History


1. Year of Wonders
2. The Alchemist's Daughter

3x French

French Books
COMPLETED

2x Short Stories


COMPLETED

1x Tome
A big, fat, scary book.


Still unread.

Early Reviewers: The FARC

The FARC: The Longest Insurgency by Gary Leech (April 2011 batch)

I requested this from the Early Reviewers Programme as I have a great interest in Latin America, being a Hispanic Studies graduate.

Journalist Garry Leech takes us through the history of the Colombian guerrilla group, emerging out of the La Violencia up to today. Told in chronological order, we can see that while the FARC has changed both in itself and in the perception of others - as best shown in chapter 5 : 'Narco-guerrillas' to Narco-terrorists' – the reason for its success appears to have remained constant, the government's lack of interest in the poorer areas of the country. Another important issue covered in the book is that of US intervention in Colombia, ostensibly due to the war on drugs.

The FARC is not something that is often covered impartially, so I found Leech's measured text refreshing, while he did not shy from informing the reader of the FARC's ruthless methods, he also showed us the wider Colombian context, one in which both government troops and paramilitary groups should also be held accountable for the vast number of killings and internal displacements.

While I have read quite a few articles about the FARC, I appreciated Leech's methodical explanations, starting with its beginnings and moving through its different important periods right up until the present day. By placing the FARC in context, both politically and socially, the reader is able to see how the guerrilla group has hung on in Colombia for half a century.

My main criticism would be its length, while it is great as an introduction, I would have liked to have gone into more detail, though this would be a good book for someone who wants to get an outline of the FARC. ( )

 

This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Top Reads for August

Not read as many books as I'd hoped, but for the best reason - family visitors.  I can't complain too much as they both bought books with them, which, as the weather seems to have turned here, will keep me occupied until the new school year.

Once again, I was trying to keep apace of my 1001 reading challenge, not doing badly despite distractions! 

My favourite would have to be Invisible Cities, which is a short book, but not a quick read. The prose is beautifully written, Marco Polo's musing on cities as told to Kublai Khan, though really he is describing one city and throughout time.  I also read Half of a Yellow Sun, a book off my long-term TBR pile and also one of World Book Night's 2011 selection,  is not just a warts and all account of civil war, but also a history lesson. I really felt drawn in by her narrative style and the story she wove, the terrible realities of civil war and very human reactions to it, the positive and the negative. I also enjoyed The Rainbow, which was strangely compelling, I say strangely because at times I wasn't sure what kept me reading. Curiousity maybe, interesting characters certainly, but also possibly because of the lack of external dialogue. I did find the reading exhausting, if that is the correct word, almost binging on a chunk of text, then having to put the book down to digest the narrative.

As is normal over the summer, I did read my fair share of thrillers, The Ghost was the best of the bunch.  The author takes as a starting point a ghost writer called in to help finish the memoirs of a former British PM, modelled on our very own Tony Blair.  This is not non-fiction, but rather a story which takes its starting point in reality, covering many current grievences - the invasion of Iraq, the War on Terror, the use of torture, Guantanamo Bay, Britain's Pro-American stance under Blair.  The Righteous Men was also good, a thriller based around a Jewish tradition of Righteous Men.  Much better than the Da Vinci Code which it has been compared to.

As for the rest, I got an Ian Rankin out the library, The Flood, not a Rebus book, but one of his earlier works, with a view to bumping that series up my TBR pile when I get back to the U.K.  I don't often get to read books set in the area around where I went to school, especially not one which shows this side of Fife life. Small town superstition mixed with the harsh reality of unemployment, Rankin brings many elements together which make up this gripping read.  The House of Sand and Fog stood up its reputation, surpassing the good film which I saw a few years ago.  It is very tensely written, showing how a clerical error causes complete chaos for an American girl and an immigrant Iranian family.  My brother brought a few books with him, all Latin America themed, I have read one so far, Bitter Grounds, which follows three generations of women through El Salvador's bloody recent history.  Well-written and informative.