Monthly Archives: December 2012

So it looks like it’s that time again – sum up the year in various ways –  First I suppose are the basic stats: I read 158  books this year  –   54 (34%) were audio books, 22 (14%) were … Continue reading →

Istanbul Passage by Joseph Kanon 2012/ 401 pages Rating:  7.5 I don’t *usually* read spy-novels but I’ve read enough to know a good one when I see it.  Kanon’s latest is one of these. Set in Istanbul circa 1945 WWII … Continue reading →

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene – 1951 / 192 pages read by Colin Firth 6h 28m rating – 8.5 Greene writes from a confused Catholic perspective about a man who is having an affair with a woman … Continue reading →

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – 1854 Read by John Lee –   47 hours (Oxford Edition – 1130 pages) Rating – 10  (they just don’t write them like this anymore) I enjoyed this book far far … Continue reading →

Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles 2012/299 pages rating  8 When the unnamed narrator house-sits his friend’s flat in an unnamed Eastern European city he should have known it might be a bit of trouble.  The two friends are … Continue reading →

Slouching Toward Bethlehem by Joan Didion 1968 / 256 pages audio / Diane Keaton / 6h 53m rating – 7 I’ve wanted to read this since probably 1968 (when I heard of it) but the book and I were never … Continue reading →

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes 2011 / 165 pages rating 8.5 Another group is reading this Booker winner so I’ll play and reread it. I give it that high of a rating because it’s well written for … Continue reading →

NW by Zadie Smith 2012/416 pages read by Karen Bryson 10h 58m rating – 10 So many interconnected characters – all from the same lower class neighborhood of very mixed ethnicities.  Leah and Natalie/Keisha have been best friends since a … Continue reading →

Split Second by David Baldacci 2003 (1st of series) audio – Scott Brick / 11h 40m rating B+ My son recommended this series to me and the first book is a good start for it.   Political intrigue is the … Continue reading →

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 1963 / 234 pages Rating – 9 The Bell Jar is a moderately short novel.  It’s based on Plath’s experiences as a student in New York when she was about 20 or so (1953) … Continue reading →

The Book of Evidence by John Banville 1989 / 219 pages Rating – 8.5 Freddie Montgomery, a 38-year-old scientist, seems to bumble through life and now he’s out of luck and out of money and seriously wanted by some really … Continue reading →

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed 2012 / 336 pages read by Bernadette Dunne/13h 6m rating – 7.5 I doubt I would ever have read this if it hadn’t been chosen as a reading … Continue reading →

The End Of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe 2012 / 352 pages read by Jeff Harding 9h 40m Rating – 8.5 This is basically a book-lover’s memoir of a wonderful woman who read a lot of books and … Continue reading →

Walden by Henry David Thoreau 1852 / 160 pages Rating – 9.5   IN 1845 Henry David Thoreau, a bachelor from Concord Massachusetts,  went to live as independently as he could in a self-built shelter by a pond with some … Continue reading →

And Then You Dye by Monica Ferris 2012 / 304 pages read by Susan Boyle 7h.  31m. Ferris’ 16th novel and I’m all caught up.  In this rather traditional “who-done-it”  the amateur sleuth Betsy Davenport is doing some investigation into … Continue reading →

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 / 148 pages rating – 9 I was spoiled by In the First Circle, also about life in the camps but a specialized scientific camp for that one.  That’s … Continue reading →

The Black Box by Michael Connelly 2012/416 pages read by Michael McConnohie 10h. 29m. rating – B I don’t know why I read Heronymous Bosch series –  I’m used to it,  I guess.   Bosch is a crank – he’s out … Continue reading →