The Complete Peanuts 1963 - 1964

Title: The Compete Peanuts 1963 - 1964
Author: Charles Schulz
Genre: Comic
Series: Peanuts
Audience: Everyone!
Format: Book - Library

Synopsis: Volume 7 in this series takes us through 1963 and 1964.

What I thought: You all know what I'm going to say here - love it, love it, love it!! The Goodreads synopsis does a much better job of describing this book than I ever could. Check it out here.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Is a meme hosted by Shelia over at Book Journey. A weekly check in to see what you are currently reading and what is coming up. Head over to Shelia's blog to see what others are reading this week.

 What am I reading now.

 

The Complete Peantus 1963 - 1964

Seriously, who doesn't love a little peanuts in their life? This is the 7th volume in a planned 25 volume series which will see the whole 50 years of Sculz's masterpiece published. So far 16 volumes have been published, which takes us to 1981- 1982. I hate to think what I'm going to do when I catch up as the plans are for two volumes a year.

What I finished this week (and last week).

1. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
3. The Retribution - Val McDermid

 

I also finished proof reading an unpublished manuscript for a friend of my husbands.

What's next

I have a few possibilities. Of course there are the last remaining Potter books. I also picked up Donna Tartt's The Secret History from the library the other day. A friend has lent me a copy of Sins of the Father by Eamonn Duff. Those outside of Australia may not know a lot about the topic of this book - Shapelle Corby. Corby was caught carrying a large amount of cannabis into Bali - not a good idea at all! There was much media attention and she is currently serving a lengthy sentence in a not nice Indonesian jail. There has been a lot of controversy over the case - whether or not she was guilty, whether she deserves to be where she is or whether she should be bought home. This book looks at her father's supposed links with drug trafficking and whether Shapelle took the fall for a man who is now dead and taken the truth to his grave.

 

So what was your week like? Leave me a comment and a link, I'd love to know!

The Retribution

Title: The Retribution
Author: Val McDermid
Genre: Fiction - Crime
Audience: Adult
Format: Book - Library

From Goodreads: Clinical psychologist Tony Hill has had a good run. He and police detective Carol Jordan have put away scores of dangerous criminals and have a clearance rate that colleagues envy or resent. But there is one serial killer who has shaped and defined their careers, a person whose evil surpasses all others: Jacko Vance, an ex-celebrity and sociopath whose brilliance and utter lack of remorse have never left Tony’s mind in the ten years Vance has been locked up. Now Jacko has broken out of prison and, with a mind even more twisted and cunning than before, he is focused on wreaking revenge on Tony and Carol for the years he has spent in prison. They don’t know when Jacko will strike, or where. All they know is that he will cause them to feel fear like they’ve never known.
   
What I thought: I love Val McDermid's books that have psychologist Tony Hill as the main character. This series has been made into a TV series in Britain called Wire in the Blood and it's excellent. While several of the episodes are based on books, many just use the characters.
In this latest book, Tony Hill is faced once more with Jacko Vance. A serial killer he helped DCI Carol Jordan put away for the murder of several young girls. Now Vance has escaped and is bent on exacting revenge on those he feel are responsible for his downfall.
I don't know exactly what it is that I love about this series. Like most crime novels with recurring characters you do start to wonder exactly how many traumatic episodes these people can handle before losing it completely. But McDermid manages to convince you that her characters are up for this continual beating up. Maybe it's partly the fact that Tony Hill has been "different" from  the beginning - socially awkward and obsessed with his chosen field of psychology. The first Tony Hill book was released in 1995 - a time when profiling was in it's infancy. It has been interesting to see how McDermid has incorporated the growing acceptance of criminal profiling as the series has grown. Where in early books Tony had to fight to prove his skills and their worth, by now it's just accepted a profiler will make up part of the team.
A worth while series for any crime nut.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Author: J.K Rowling
Series: Harry Potter
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Children/ Young Adult
Format: Book - Personal Collection

From Goodreads: Harry Potter is due to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His best friends Ron and Hermoine have been very secretive all summer and he is desperate to get back to school and find out what has been going on. However, what Harry discovers is far more devastating than he could ever have expected...
Suspense, secrets and thrilling action from the pen of J.K. Rowling ensure an electrifying adventure that is impossible to put down.
 
What I thought: Most probably my least favourite book in the series. Having said that, I did still enjoy it. I can remember reading this for the first time and getting rather annoyed with Harry's woe is me attitude about everything. How on earth Ron or Hermoine did not lay him flat at some stage I will never know! Mind you, at the same time, it would be incredibly frustrating to be kept in the dark so much. I love Dumbledore's speech at the end where he admits he has kept too much from Harry for too long. I think it's important that children get to experience characters they love being flawed and apologising when they get it wrong. As for Umbridge - truly the most despicable character Rowling ever came up with!

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

Title: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Author: J.K Rowling
Series: Harry Potter
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Children/ Young Adult
Format: Book - Personal Collection

From Goodreads: Fourteen-year-old Harry Potter joins the Weasleys at the Quidditch World Cup, then enters his fourth year at Hogwarts Academy where he is mysteriously entered in an unusual contest that challenges his wizarding skills, friendships and character, amid signs that an old enemy is growing stronger.
 
What I thought: The one where it all really starts to happen! For me, this is the first of the books you could class as young adult. I know that when it came out I was working as a teacher librarian in a primary school and there was much discussion about whether it should be in the library. At our local library it is the last one to be in the junior fiction area.
It's also the first book that starts to examine the characters and their feelings further. There is the beginning of attraction to the opposite sex, jealousy, betrayal and death to deal with.  The end of the book sets the scene perfectly for the next book.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? Is a meme hosted by Shelia over at Book Journey. A weekly check in to see what you are currently reading and what is coming up. Head over to Shelia's blog to see what others are reading this week.

 What am I reading now.

 

 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling.

I decided to reread this series last year after seeing the final movie. I started this the other day when my Kindle died halfway through Mort. (My Kindle dying was a very traumatic experience!) Once I got a new Kindle sorted I went back to Mort but picked this up again the moment I finished.

What I finished this week.

Another half way decent week with holidays and all!

1. The Other Hand - Chris Cleave (also published as Little Bee)
2. The Complete Peanuts 1961 - 1962 - Charles Schulz
3. Mort - Terry Pratchett

What's next

Likely to be more Pratchett. I am really enjoying re-reading his stuff at the moment.

 

So what was your week like? Leave me a comment and a link, I'd love to know!

Mort

Title: Mort
Author: Terry Pratchett
Series: Discworld
Genre: Fantasy/ Comedy Fiction
Audience: Adult
Format: Kindle

From Goodreads: Death comes to us all.  When he came to Mort, he offered him a job.
After being assured that being dead was not compulsory, Mort accepted.  However, he soon found that romantic longings did not mix easily with the responsibilities of being Death's apprentice...

What I thought:  Death needs a break so he takes on an apprentice. No one can give Death more life than Pratchett. Mort is learning how to collect souls and what happens when he doesn't. Death meanwhile is off looking for himself and collecting cats. Throw in Death's old and very loyal servant, Alfred, his adopted daughter Ysabell and a princess that people are having trouble seeing and you get yet another classic, hilarious read.


Challenges: Ebook Challenge

The Complete Peanuts 1961 - 1962

Title: The Compete Peanuts 1961 - 1962
Author: Charles Schulz
Genre: Comic
Series: Peanuts
Audience: Everyone!
Format: Book - Library

Synopsis: Volume 6 in this series takes us through 1961 and 1962.

What I thought: More Peanuts brilliance! There are a total of 25 volumes in this series, I wonder how many I can get through this year!

Challenges:

The Other Hand

Title: The Other Hand (also published as Little Bee)
Author: Chris Cleave
Genre: Fiction
Audience: Adult
Format: Kindle

From Goodreads: Worlds collide when Little Bee, a Nigerian girl orphaned by violence, meets Sarah, a dissatisfied British professional away on holiday. The story is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific. The story starts there, but the book doesn't. And it's what happens afterwards that is most important. A mixture of tragedy and comedy, a taste of what could happen to immigrants to the UK, realistically narrated by the two main characters: Little Bee, an immigrant to UK from Nigeria; and Sarah, a British magazine editor who had a previous connection with Little Bee.
What I thought: This is our first book group read for 2012 and wow, what a way to start the year! First off, it is simply beautifully written. The flow, the language all melds seamlessly to create a fantastic reading experience. Each chapter alternates between Little Bee and Sarah. In the beginning this produces a wonderful image of two stories moving closer together until you know they will merge and from that point they move forward together, showing different view points of the same events.

The characters of Little Bee and Sarah were lovely too. Little Bee's way of explaining or describing things and events appear simplistic, but offer such great depth. Sarah's chapters showed her feelings of confusion and uncertainty as her world is turned upside down. I believe Little Bee is a book that needs to be read by everyone, if for no other reason than to show that things are not always what we think.

Challenges: Ebook Challenge

Quotable Quotes

 

 Sometimes when I am reading a book, I come across a quote that for some reason grabs me. It may simply be beautifully written or it speaks to me on a deeper level. I often think I must write that down! And now I want to share them. So every now and then, I will do a Quotable Quotes post featuring a passage from a book I am reading. If you would like to see all my Quotable Quotes, click here!

This quote comes from The Other Hand by Chris Cleave. Other's will know this book as Little Bee.

On the girl's brown legs there were many white scars. I was thinking, Do those scars cover the whole of you, like the stars and the moons on your dress? I thought that would be pretty too and I ask you right here to please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, "I survived."

I love this. I have always said my stretch marks from being pregnant were badges of honour - proof that I nurtured a child in my body for 9 months. Scars do mean survival - triumph over something or someone that tried to hurt or damage us. A badge that says I survived.

You can check out other quotable quotes here.