To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

5/5*

To Say Nothing of the dog is the story of Ned Henry, a 21st century time traveller, who's mission it is is to recover the famous bishop's bird stump from the Coventry Cathedral before it's bombed in 1940. Henry's search leads him to Victorian England with a fellow time traveler, Verity Kindle, to fix the past.

I really enjoyed this book, it was fun, amusing and easy to read. Willis does a great job making time travel seem logical and even an everyday occurance in the 21st century.

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser

Sister Carrie is set in late 19th century cities of Chicago and New York. Sister Carrie comes to live with her sister and brother in law in Chicago. Attracted by the bright lights and high living she see all around her, she takes up with Douet and lives with him as his "wife." She soon is discontented with her life and runs off with Hurstwood, who unknown to Carrie, has stolen money from his employer. They soon make their way to New York, after several years of struggling, Carrie starts her acting career and soon leave Hurstwood.

A great read! I really enjoyed Sister Carrie. The plot was well written and the characters were likable. I thought this was a touching story about a young girl trying to better herself in the world. I felt for Carrie, but didn't truly like her and her ambitions. She didn't seem to have anything to show for it at the end, other then her unhappiness.

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

The Virgin Blue is the story of two Tournier woman living centuries apart. Ella moves to France with her husband Rick. While there, she is determined to find out about her family's French ancestry. She is distrubed by nightmares with the color blue and a prayer in French. In order to understand the dream she digs deeper into her family history and discovers a gruesome fact dealing with Isabella and Marie Tournier. Ella's story intertwine with Isabella throughout the book. Every discovery Ella makes is shadowed with Isabella's story.

I thought this was a wonderful and touching story. I thought this was even better then The Girl with a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels. One of Chevalier best books!

Pages for Pounds Challenge

I belong to the Challenged Reader group at shelfari. This is our very first challenge!

Is your TBR overflowing off your shelves? Have you vowed not to buy any books until you read the ones you already own? Did you just receive a lot of books over the holidays? Or maybe, like me, you just have page after page after page of books on your shelfari "Plans to Read" list. If you consider your TBR pile or list to be "overweight" this challenge is for you!*

Pages for Pounds is a fairly basic challenge. It's quite simple:

1. Take the books on your TBR list
2. Read them
3. Weigh the book using a kitchen scale or go to amazon.com and check the shipping weight.
4. Twice a month report the amount of weight you've read
5. At the end of the challenge see how much weight you've taken off your TBR pile!

See? Fairly simple.

You don't need to sign up for this challenge. You may join at any time. Pages for Pounds officially starts on January 1, 2009 and will end on February 28, 2009. The official winner is the member of The Challenged Reader who has lost the most weight during the challenge. Even if you aren't declared the winner you're still a winner to have tackled some weight from your TBR!

Throughout the challenge there may be occasional opportunities to lose some extra weight. I won't tell you how just yet, but you'll find out when these opportunities arise.

There will be check-ins twice a month to report your progress and for the admins. to tally up the pounds. Only report the books that are finished. If you're still reading a book save it until the next check-in. All books count. There isn't any specific criteria just read what you want to read and what's already on your TBR (or any new books you can't possible refrain from adding to your TBR). Since you don't need to sign up for this challenge whenever you join just post your results at the next check-in.

Please report the weight of the actual edition you read. If you read a hardback you can report the weight of the hardpack. If it's a paperback, or mass market edition report the weight of those particular books. Audiobooks count as well. For audiobooks the weight is the weight of the audibook itself. You can weight the audiobook in the case or use amazon.com. During the check-ins post if it was a hardback, paperback, mass market, audiobook, or electronic reader edition.

If you would like to keep a log of the books you read during this challenge you may do so. Just create a discussion with the title "(Your Name or Username)'s Pages for Pounds Log). You do not have to keep a log if you do not want to. Since all books qualify for this challenge and there won't be additional bonuses for reading certain books that wouldn't count previously, you don't have to keep a log, but anyone who wants to is encouraged to post one. As members post their results at the weigh-ins you'll be able to see all the books that everyone has read.

There won't be any prizes given to the winner, but you will receive bragging rights and if you have a blog or a webpage a special graphic to show off your dedication to reducing your TBR.

Any questions? Feel free to let us know!

EDITED on 12/31/08:

If you do NOT finish a book that you start during this challenge you may receive credit for it. After you have officially given up on the book post it at the next check-in. You didn't finish the book, but you did knock it off your TBR so it still counts. Just be sure to let us know at the weigh-in that it was unread. This is another way to lose a lot of weight! It's a good time to clean up those shelves and chuck the books you realize you no longer want to read. Unfinished books won't receive the full weight amount, but the percentage of the weight that you did read. If you read a quarter of a book you'll receive a quarter of the weight. Hey, that's still weight knocked off your TBR!




* Even if you don't consider your shelf or list to be overweight and, unlike a lot of us, are able to refrain from buying books that consume all your space, you may still participate in all the fun. =P



Books & their Weight:

The Devil Who Tamed Her by Johanna Lindsey - 7oz
Beauty Pop Vol 2 by Kiyoko Arai - 7oz

Total: 14oz

The Devil Who Tamed Her by Johanna Lindsey

5/5 Stars

I love a good Johanna Lindsey book! She does romance right, her plots and characters are believable and lovable. In The Devil Who Tamed Her, Ophelia Reid is one of the most beautiful debutantes of the season. She has men proposing left and right, but she wants someone to love her before proposing. She's already broken two engagements in the seasons.

Raphael Locke thinks that Ophelia needs a lesson in how to treat others nicely. Her rumormongering and her other faults are a challenge he can't resist. Can Ophelia change, can she find someone to love her, not just her looks?

Mystery Cats by Various

4/5 Stars

I really enjoyed this anthology of cat mystery stories. Some of them were really good! There was a wide variety of mysteries with cats as a central figure. Some of my favorite stories were:

Susu and the 8:30 Ghost by Lillian Jackson Braun
I've always loved Braun's books, this short story was a mixture of ghost story and mystery. Susu, a siamese cat, forms a strong bond with one of her neighbors. The cat is central in solving the mystery in the story.

The Abominable House Guest by Theodore Sturgeon

In this story, the cat takes a dislike to his master and her houseguest. The results are murderous! I usually don't like story where the cat can talk, but it just added layers to it.

The Lady Wore Black by Hugh B. Cave

When a cat's mistress is murdered, the cat exacts revenge on her murderer. A really great suspenseful story told from the murderer's point of view.

The Theft of Mafia Cat by Edward D. Hoch

A thief is hired to steal a local Mafia don's very recognizable cat. His method is great! Very ingeunious how he gets the cat out of the house undected!

4th of July by James Patterson

3/5 Stars

It's been awhile since I read 3rd Degree, the last book in the series before this one. I really didn't care for the plot and it kept me from reading this one for a long time. It didn't take long for me to get back into the series. I found this book to be very enjoyable but with a few minor plot flaws. Lt. Lindsey Boxer is haunted by a 10 year old unsolved murder of a John Doe. When similar murders start to happen she can't resist trying to solve them, even though its not in her juridistion. There is a second plot, and it felt totally unrelated, where Lindsey finds herself on trial after firing her weapon in the line of duty.

This book almost could have been two seperate books. The plots are almost totally seperate from each other. The trial is the reason she leaves town and gets involved in the other murder investigation. But that's all that ties the two of them together.

Even with the minor flaws, I thought this was a very good book. It kept my attention from the beginning and didn't let up until the end. I figured out two of the three murderers, but not the motive. I thought the ending was a little forced, especially the confession of one of the murderers. For the most part the these murders were almost unsolvable and the murderers are forced into confessing all by themselves.

Murder in the Hearse Degree by Tim Cockey

I just love Hitchcock Sewell! If there was a male equivalent to Stephanie Plum, he would be it. Hitchcock is an undertaker by trade, but finds himself involved in figuring out murder mysteries. He's usually dragged in by his current love interest. In Murder in the Hearse Degree, it's a former love, Libby, that gets him invovled. Her nanny, Sophia is missing and later turns up dead. It seems she took a dive off a bridge. The mystery gets a little detail orientated. I had a difficult time figuring out who the murderer was, but saw it clearly at the end. A really great book in the series! I can't wait to read the next one.
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Out of Sight by Cherry Adair

4/5 Stars

I really like Cherry Adair's books. They are always action packed and have a good plot and the romance doesn't get in the way. Out of Sight is the story of two T-Flac agents AJ Cooper and Kane Wright. This is one of the earlier books in the series. I thought the book was well written, action packed and the romance worked. I really hate books that the characters don't seem to belong together. This was definitely not one of those books!

Burning Bright By Tracy Chevalier

4/5 Stars

Burning Bright is the story of Jem and Massie Kelloway. Their lives are never the same when their family moves from the country into London in the late 18th Century . Their father gets a job as a carpenter with the Astley's Circus and Jem and Massie are thrown into that world. Jem makes friends with a local girl Maggie and the Blakes.

I thought this was another enjoyable book from Tracy Chevalier. I really like how the book is setting around the Astley Circus and William Blake. Chevalier does a really great job blending fact with fiction and making it believeable. Although I enjoyed this book, I didn't think it was up to par with Girl with the Pearl Earring.