Off the Shelf Challenge 2012

What: Read books from the TBR pile
When: January 1 - December 31, 2012

For more information, see the instructions on Bookish Ardour

My level: 2 = trying.  For this level, I will read 15 books:

1. Carole Nelson Douglas. Dancing with Werewolves -- finished 1/3/2012 
2. Geraldine Brooks. People of the Book -- finished 1/23/2012 
3. Robert C. Fleet. Last Mountain -- finished 1/31/2012
4. Jonathan Carroll. Glass Soup -- finished 2/6/2012
5. John Ramsey Miller. Upside Down -- finished 2/8/2012
6. C.J. Cherryh. The Pride of Chanur -- finished 2/8/2012
7. Greg Iles. The Footprints of God -- finished 2/28/2012
8. Jeffrey Ford. The Girl in the Glass -- finished 3/8/2012
9. Mo Hayder. Pig Island -- finished 3/19/2012
10. Robert A. Heinlein. The Green Hills of Earth -- finished 3/21/2012
11. Jason F. Wright. The Wednesday Letters -- finished 3/28/2012
12. Michael Crichton. Sphere -- finished 3/29/2012
13. Patricia Wallace. Lullabye. -- finished 3/31/2012
14. Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove. Household Gods -- finished 4/9/2012
15. Carl Hiassen. Native Tongue -- finished 4/18/2012
16. Trish MacDonald Skillman. Someone to Watch Over -- finished 4/25/2012
17. Dave Duncan. The Gilded Chain -- finished 5/16/2012
18. Tiziano Terzani. A Fortune-Teller Told Me -- finished 5/27/2012
19. Matt Ruff. Bad Monkeys -- finished 6/2/2012
20. Kelly Link. Magic for Beginners. -- finished 6/20/2012
21. Frederick Forsyth. Icon. -- finished 7/2/2012
22. Poul Anderson. Trader to the Stars. -- finished 7/23/2012
23. Charlaine Harris. Real Murders -- finished 8/14/2012
24. Mark Kurlansky. Salt: A World History -- finished 8/19/2012
25. Karen Chance. Touch the Dark -- finished 8/29/2012
26. Aiden James. Plague of Coins -- finished 8/30/2012
27. Linda Gillard. Emotional Geology -- finished 9/15/2012
28. Keith R.A. DeCandido. The Xander Years, Volume 1 -- finished 9/17/2012
29. Max Barry. Machine Man -- finished 10/12/2012
30. Elizabeth Strout. Olive Kittridge -- finished 10/20/2012
31. Philip Caputo. The Voyage -- finished 11/15/2012
32. Elspeth Huxley. Murder at Government House -- finished 12/6/2012
33. C.J. Cherryh. Serpent's Reach -- finished 12/9/2012
34. Katharine Weber. Triangle -- finished 12/29/2012

Triangle by Katharine Weber

First sentence:

"This is what happened."

Description:

"By the time she dies at age 106, Esther Gottesfeld, the last survivor of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire, has told the story of that days many times. But her own role remains mysterious: How did she survive when at least 146 workers, her sister and fiancé among them, burned or jumped to their deaths? Are the gaps in her story just common mistakes, or has she deliberately concealed a secret over the years? As her granddaughter seeks the real story in the present day, a zealous feminist historian intrudes with her own set of conclusions, but it is Esther's voice echoing insistently through the decades that ultimately reveals the meaning of the tragedy.

A brilliant, haunting chronicle of the event that stood for ninety years as New York's most violent disaster, Triangle forces us to consider how we tell our stories, how we hear them, and how history is forged from unverifiable truths." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This was a very good book about people and their stories. The ones they tell, and the ones told about them. I liked Esther's interactions with the interviewer as well as her granddaughter's friend George Bostwick composing music based on DNA.

Date read: 12/29/2012
Book #: 43
Challenge: Off the Shelf Challenge 2012
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0312426143
ISBN-13: 9780312426149
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2006
# of pages: 242
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page

Serpent's Reach by C.J. Cherryh

First sentence:

"If it was anywhere possible to be a child in the Family, it was possible at Kethiuy, on Cerdin."

Description:

"The constellation of Hydri, known as the Serpent, is compact and obscure from Earth and remained so in the era of interstellar colonization. For it was under strict quarantine--harboring an intelligent race, powerful and alien. Yet there were human colonies within the Serpent's Reach, cut off from the galaxy beyond, with their own inbred culture, and their special relationships to the inhuman majat.

This is the novel of Raen, the last of the massacred Sul Family, and of her lifetime pledge to find vengeance. It was to take her across the worlds of the Reach into the very center of the alien webwork that knit the forbidden constellation into a complex of interbred cultures that no outsider could hope to unravel." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book set in a rich and complicated universe. I especially liked the way the majat are portrayed and how Raen interacts with them.

Date read: 12/9/2012
Book #: 42
Series: Alliance-Union Universe, #13
Challenge: Off the Shelf Challenge 2012
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: SF

ISBN-10: 0886770882
ISBN-13: 9780886770884
Publisher: DAW
Year:\1980
# of pages: 285
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page

New Author Challenge 2012!

What: Read authors who are new to me

When: January 1 - December 31, 2012

Hosted at Literary Escapism

 
My goal: 15 new authors

1. Robert C. Fleet. Last Mountain -- finished 1/31/2012
2. Lev Grossman. Codex -- finished 2/3/2012
3. John Ramsey Miller. Upside Down -- finished 2/8/2012
4. Greg Iles. The Footprints of God -- finished 2/28/2012
5. Mo Hayder. Pig Island -- finished 3/19/2012
6. Jason F. Wright. The Wednesday Letters -- finished 3/28/2012
7. Patricia Wallace. Lullabye -- finished 3/31/2012
8. Carl Hiassen. Native Tongue -- finished 4/18/2012
9. Irene Nemirovsky. All Our Worldly Goods-- finished 4/23/2012
10. Trish MacDonald Skillman. Someone to Watch Over -- finished 4/25/2012
11. Dave Duncan. The Gilded Chain -- finished 5/16/2012
12. Tiziano Terzani. A Fortune-Teller Told Me -- finished 5/27/2012
13. Shalom Auslander. Hope: A Tragedy -- finished 7/15/2012
14. Mark Kurlansky. Salt: A World History -- finished 8/19/2012
15. Richard Castle. Heat Wave -- finished 8/22/2012
16. Karen Chance. Touch the Dark -- finished 8/29/2012
17. Aiden James. Plague of Coins -- finished 8/30/2012
18. Linda Gillard. Emotional Geology -- finished 9/15/2012
19. Keith R.A. DeCandido. The Xander Years, Volume 1 -- finished 9/17/2012
20. Elizabeth Strout. Olive Kittridge -- finished 10/20/2012
21. Jennifer Wilson. Running Away to Home -- finished 11/9/2012
22. Philip Caputo. The Voyage -- finished 11/15/2012
23. Elspeth Huxley. Murder at Government House -- finished 12/6/2013

Murder at Government House by Elspeth Huxley

First sentence:

"Mark Beaton was in that embittered mood that was apt to follow the nerve-racking preparations for a Government House dinner-party."

Description:

"Life in the colonial capital at Chania is relaxed and blooming, barring the odd hiccough in the regional railways, but Olivia Brandeis, a young anthropologist working in the region, senses that there is trouble brewing. When the Governor is found strangled at his desk, her suspicions are confirmed. Falicious rumors fly as Inspector Vachell tries to sort out conflictng accusations and find a real suspect. Then Olivia relates her encounter with a tribal witch doctor--and an even more terrifying series of events begins to unfold." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this mystery set in Africa during the colonial period. I especially liked Vachell and Olivia working together to figure out who killed the Governor and why. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Murder on Safari.

Date read: 12/6/2012
Book #:41
Series: Vachell, #1
Challenges: New Author Challenge 2012, Off the Shelf Challenge 2012 
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Mystery

ISBN-10: 0140112553
ISBN-13: 9780140112559
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1937
# of pages: 231
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
LibraryThing page