Since I’m sick* and way behind on reviews, I’ve realised the only way to catch up is to make them speed reviews and post a whole batch at once.
The Age of Napoleon; Alistair Horne, eng, 235
Interesting, but a little choppily written, and also the author assumes you know certain things and never explains them, [...]
Posted on July 7th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: A-Z Reading Challenge, B, Book Blowout, C, Classics, D, English, GLBT interest, Historical, History, Lifestyle, Mystery, Religion, Romance, Science Fiction, Sex, sexuality & gender, Speed reviews, Swedish, To Be Read, Young Adult | 1 Comment »
A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
For the Decades ‘08 reading challenge (first published 1843) and part of the BBC Big Read.
English
77 pages
Dover Publications
ISBN: 978-0-486-26865-1
First line: Marley was dead: to begin with.
Back cover blurb:
In October 1843, Charles Dickens—heavily in debt and obligated to his publisher—began work on a book to help supplement his family’s meager income. [...]
Posted on June 6th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: C, Classics, Decades '08, English | No Comments »
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
For the Decades ‘08 reading challenge (first published 1902).
English
111 pages
a Project Gutenberg e-book
First line: The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest.
Back cover blurb:
In this tale of colonial exploitation, the narrator, Marlowe, journeys deep into the heart of [...]
Posted on May 25th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: C, Classics, Decades '08, English, Historical | No Comments »
Daddy-Long-Legs
by Jean Webster
For the Decades ‘08 reading challenge (first published 1912).
English
160 pages
J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd/E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc.
ISBN: n/a
First line: The first Wednesday in every month was a Perfectly Awful Day—a day to be awaited with dread, endured with courage and forgotten with haste.
Back cover blurb: n/a
Thoughts: I’ve read Daddy-Long-Legs before, but [...]
Posted on May 20th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: B, Classics, Decades '08, English, Young Adult | No Comments »
A Tale of a Tub
by Jonathan Swift
For the Decades ‘08 (first published 1704) and A-Z reading challenges.
English
132 pages
a Project Gutenberg e-book
First line: My LORD, Though the author has written a large Dedication, yet that being addressed to a Prince whom I am never likely to have the honour of being known to; a person, [...]
Posted on January 20th, 2008 by Love
Filed under: A-Z Reading Challenge, C, Classics, Decades '08, English | 1 Comment »
Flying Colours (part of the Admiral Hornblower Omnibus)
by CS Forester
For the End of Year Mini Challenge and the Seafaring Challenge.
English
155 pages
Penguin Books
ISBN: 0-14-011940-X (for the whole Omnibus)
First line: Captain Hornblower was walking up and down along the sector of the ramparts of Rosas, delimited by two sentries with loaded muskets, which the commandant had [...]
Posted on December 31st, 2007 by Love
Filed under: Adventure, B, Classics, English, Historical, Personal challenges, Seafaring Challenge | 2 Comments »
Le petit prince
by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
French
101 pages
Collection Folio
ISBN: 2-07-040850-7
First line: Lorsque j’avais six ans j’ai vu, une fois, une magnifique image, dans un livre sur la forêt vierge qui s’appelait Histoires vécues.
Back cover blurb: n/a
Thoughts: I haven’t read anything in French since 2004, which means that my grasp on the language has almost completely [...]
Posted on December 13th, 2007 by Love
Filed under: B, Children's lit, Classics, French | No Comments »
Northanger Abbey
by Jane Austen
English
236 pages
Penguin Popular Classics
ISBN: 0-14-062075-3
First line: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
Back cover blurb:
Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s amusing and bitingly satirical pastiche of the ‘Gothic’ romances popular in her day.
Catherine Morland, an unremarkable tomboy as a [...]
Posted on November 4th, 2007 by Love
Filed under: B, Classics, English, Historical, Romance | 2 Comments »
