When I want to relax, I often pull one of my favorite books from the shelf and read it again. I brought down James Herriot's "All Creatures Great and Small" the other day, and remember where I was in the early 1970s when the book was published (working at my first real job as a bookstore clerk). The first book especially, was a breakthrough volume as few are anymore.
The topic - stories of an English veterinarian in the pre-WWII era - was wholesome and heartwarming, as well as fascinating. It was a perfect gift and quickly became popular. The author (whose name was not Herriot - he adopted the nom de plume because he was still in practice and it was not considered quite legitimate to advertise) had a winning style. Several more books followed, finishing off the verse - All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, and The Lord God Made Them All.
There were more stories to tell, so we also had All Living Things, and The Young James Herriot, and James Herriot's Dog Stories, and Cat Stories.... Some were better than others, as it became clear that many of the best stories had been told in the earlier volumes. But for all that, the books are an excellent part of the permanent library and a revisit every three to five years is welcome.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Thursday, December 20, 2012
2012 Summary
It was a bad year for reading and for blogging. First of all, I simply didn't find enough good new books this year. Partly this is financial. I did not buy as much this year. Also, some of the titles I did buy simply were not very good.
For the first time in many years, it looks like I will not make the goal of reading 52 new books this year.
I have been reading, and I do have eleven days off before the end of the year, so I will have a couple more titles to add to my total, but right now I have only gotten to 36, so it seems unlikely.
What was good? Well, this year I was very much impressed with Gillian Flynn. I did write about her first book, Sharp Objects, and her third one, Gone Girl, was simply stellar. In talking with a colleague about it, I admitted it was a hard book to recommend because it's hard to know what to say without giving anything away. It is so full of surprises that I needed to take extreme care.
I did pick up a couple of books by favorite authors -- new John Sandfords, new one by Kathy Reichs, whose books about forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is the basis for the TV series Bones. I think, however, that I prefer the books to the show, as the novels seem a bit more realistic to me.
I've sampled a lot of YA stuff this year - missing Harry Potter and Hunger Games books, I am looking for alternatives but not much has worked. I did see a good review of the new Cathrynne Valente book about Fairyland, so I read the first one. It was okay - if you liked the Oz books (again, very different from the movie), you might like her books. While they were okay, for me there wasn't anything much to get excited about.
I did finish the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie. The first book, Matched, was terrific. The second one, Crossed, suffered the fate of many middle chapters - just a long bridge that went not much of anywhere. The final volume is Reached. It was better but still did not live up to the promise of the first book. I actually re-read the Hunger Games series this year and I feel the same way about it. I still feel that the first book is the best.
Another series, Acacia, by David Anthony Durham, got better. The final book was as good as the first and second ones. Nicely done. It was thick going for a while because of the large cast of characters, but it turned out much better than I had thought.
Finally, I picked up volumes 4-6 of Naomi Novik's dragon series. Interesting premise - that the English and French have dragons as part of their armies during Napoleon's war of conquest. Our hero is an English dragonrider whose dragon was actually captured in the egg from a French ship. Together, Will and Temeriare have grand adventures and travel as far as China in the various books. Again, some are excellent, some not so much, but worthwhile overall.
I am certainly looking forward to a better year up ahead. Perhaps I will find an author that I love with extensive backlist and will read myself silly next year.
Happy days...
For the first time in many years, it looks like I will not make the goal of reading 52 new books this year.
I have been reading, and I do have eleven days off before the end of the year, so I will have a couple more titles to add to my total, but right now I have only gotten to 36, so it seems unlikely.
What was good? Well, this year I was very much impressed with Gillian Flynn. I did write about her first book, Sharp Objects, and her third one, Gone Girl, was simply stellar. In talking with a colleague about it, I admitted it was a hard book to recommend because it's hard to know what to say without giving anything away. It is so full of surprises that I needed to take extreme care.
I did pick up a couple of books by favorite authors -- new John Sandfords, new one by Kathy Reichs, whose books about forensic anthropologist Tempe Brennan is the basis for the TV series Bones. I think, however, that I prefer the books to the show, as the novels seem a bit more realistic to me.
I've sampled a lot of YA stuff this year - missing Harry Potter and Hunger Games books, I am looking for alternatives but not much has worked. I did see a good review of the new Cathrynne Valente book about Fairyland, so I read the first one. It was okay - if you liked the Oz books (again, very different from the movie), you might like her books. While they were okay, for me there wasn't anything much to get excited about.
I did finish the Matched trilogy by Ally Condie. The first book, Matched, was terrific. The second one, Crossed, suffered the fate of many middle chapters - just a long bridge that went not much of anywhere. The final volume is Reached. It was better but still did not live up to the promise of the first book. I actually re-read the Hunger Games series this year and I feel the same way about it. I still feel that the first book is the best.
Another series, Acacia, by David Anthony Durham, got better. The final book was as good as the first and second ones. Nicely done. It was thick going for a while because of the large cast of characters, but it turned out much better than I had thought.
Finally, I picked up volumes 4-6 of Naomi Novik's dragon series. Interesting premise - that the English and French have dragons as part of their armies during Napoleon's war of conquest. Our hero is an English dragonrider whose dragon was actually captured in the egg from a French ship. Together, Will and Temeriare have grand adventures and travel as far as China in the various books. Again, some are excellent, some not so much, but worthwhile overall.
I am certainly looking forward to a better year up ahead. Perhaps I will find an author that I love with extensive backlist and will read myself silly next year.
Happy days...
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