Reading 2011

I'm officially retiring my book blog, having only posted a couple of times in the last two years, so when I do write about reading it shall be here.

During 2011 I read 39 fiction and 11 non-fiction. I also started Catch 22, but couldn't get past 50 or so pages. It's unusual for me not to finish a book, especially one that I feel I ought to read. I'll probably try reading it again in a couple of years.

It's also unusual for me to read significantly more fiction than non-fiction, but last year I decided to focus on reading modern fiction that friends and family had recommended.

The fiction I gave 10 stars to were:

Iggulden, Conn - Emperor: The gates of Rome
Iggulden, Conn - Emperor: The death of kings
Hosseini, Khaled - The Kite Runner
Hosseini, Khaled - A Thousand Splendid Suns
Iggulden, Conn - Emperor: The Field of Swords
Iggulden, Conn - Emperor: The Gods of War
Golden, Arthur - Memoirs of a Geisha
Atwood, Margaret - The Handmaid's Tale
Martel, Yann - Life of Pi
Albom, Mitch - The Five People You Meet in Heaven
Mitchell, David - Cloud Atlas
Barbery, Muriel - The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Edwards, Clive John - 1874 (okay so I might be a little biased here!)

I'd not read books by any of these authors before and it will definitely encourage me to read more fiction in future.

The non-fiction I gave 10 stars to were:

Chang, Jung - Wild Swans
Harrer, Heinrich - Seven Years in Tibet

The other books I read were the following. The books with a star did not receive 10 stars, but I still consider them 'must-reads':

Goodkind, Terry - Temple of the Winds
Goodkind, Terry - Soul of the Fire
Goodkind, Terry - Faith of the Fallen
Kuegler, Sabine - Child of the Jungle (non-fiction)
Fuller, Alexandra - Don't let's go to the dogs tonight (non-fiction)
*Kafka, Franz - The Metamorphosis
Horwood, William - The Boy with No Shoes (non-fiction)
Banks, Iain - The Wasp Factory
*Filopovic, Zlata - Zlata's Diary (non-fiction)
Horwood, William - Hyddenworld - Spring
Forster, E M - A Passage to India
Forster, E M - A Room with a View
*Zola, Emile - Germinal
Faulks, Sebastian - Engleby
Flaubert, Gustave - Madame Bovary
*Walker, Alice - The Color Purple
Latifa - My Forbidden Face (non-fiction)
Sebold, Alice - The Lovely Bones
Golding, William - Rites of Passage
*Donague, Emma - Room
Fielding, Henry - Tom Jones
Sasson, Jean - For the Love of a Son (non-fiction)
Randell, Nigel - The White Headhunter (non-fiction)
Faulks, Sebastian - The Girl at the Lion d'Or
Shah, Hannah - The Imam's Daughter (non-fiction)
Wharton, Edith - The Age of Innocence
Twining, James - The Double Eagle
*Marquez, Gabriel Garcia - One Hundred Years of Solitude
Ishiguro, Kazuo - The Remains of the Day
*Thomas, Abigail - A Three Dog Life (non-fiction)
Steinbeck, John - The Grapes of Wrath
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz - The Shadow of the Wind
Fynn - Mister God This is Anna
Fielding, Helen - Bridget Jones's Diary
Fielding, Helen - Bridget Jones - The Edge of Reason

I find it extremely difficult to choose the 'best book' that I read in 2011 - for me it comes jointly between Cloud Atlas and Wild Swans. Interestingly my father's favourite book of 2011 was also written by David Mitchell.

I'm back reading non-fiction in 2012 and have already given 10 stars to Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman.

Misty

Sadly we were unable to keep fostering Sophie because dementia had set in, causing all sorts of problems including scratching the walls and howling every morning at 5am for no reason. She's now back at Axhayes, so at least we can visit her when we like (I have the scars to prove it!)

Before Christmas we visited Axhayes to meet some of their older cats. We were very taken with two of them - Misty and Frankie, but unfortunately Frankie had come from the countryside and wouldn't be suitable for homing in the city.

We offered to adopt Misty, but didn't bring her home until after the New Year because we knew that we would be visiting family over the holiday period and didn't want to leave her on her own.

Misty is a 10 year-old white and silver tabby. She's a little shy, very affectionate and also quite playful - something we've not been used to, but are enjoying immensely.



Only a couple of days after her arrival and she'd already made friends with our other companions the laptops:

Welcome to Frog End Misty.

A new clock

GB remembered from his visit earlier in the year that we hadn't got a clock for our new kitchen and kindly offered to buy us one for Christmas. We wanted to get a black one to match our units. Searching on the web came up with lots of lovely clocks, but we both fell for this one. It arrived a couple of days ago and was the first present we unwrapped this morning.

As well as being a little bit different and less serious than most clocks it also has three lovely little animals - a bird, squirrel and a rabbit. The rabbit is my favourite.

By Christmas dinner time the clock was in its new home:

Thank you GB for a wonderful and thoughtful present.

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween a couple of days early this year as Ian was going away for a week. We were very busy with work so I didn't manage to do any baking, but we got these wonderful cakes from the supermarket (no doubt the first and last time that I'll happily eat spider):

As usual we carved pumpkins. I decided upon a bat which we both agreed looked more impressive in the light than in the dark:


Ian carved a graveyard scene which looked fantastic when lit:


Mum got us a lovely little tealight holder:

and we brought out these lovely little guys that Ian bought in Sweden:

Harvest

It's traditional in my family to celebrate harvest by decorating the dining room with vegetables and sitting down as a family to a home-cooked meal. Over the last few years we haven't manage to keep up the tradition, but this year Mum visited us in October so we celebrated in Exeter for the first time.

After homemade soup for lunch we went for a walk around Stover Country Park

When we got back our neighbour's friendly cat Sweep dropped by for a fuss:

In addition to the fruit and vegetables we also decorated with the fake maple leaves that we bought for our wedding cake and with the hazelnuts that we collected on our walks:


We had a blackberry and apple pie for dessert and we used our delightful new pie crust cutters from Williams-Sonoma to decorate it:

Tintagel

During our trip to Cornwall we visited the village of Tintagel on the north coast. Tintagel and its castle are associated with the legends of King Arthur - see the wikipedia page for more information.

The Camelot hotel has incredible views of the Celtic Sea

The castle is partly on the mainland and partly on an island. To get to either part involves climbing a lot of steps. On the mainland:

On the island:

The castle ruins:



Merlin's Cave was very difficult to photograph, but I think this photo shows the atmosphere:

The cave is open at both ends and is only viewable at low tide. We just managed to make a quick stop there before the tide blocked it off.

Princess Sophie

Today we brought home our second foster cat from the local Cats Protection Centre. 15 year-old Sophie is a grey and white and had rather a reputation for grumpiness at the Centre. Certainly our first encounter at the Centre was a little trying with her scratching both Ian and I despite our trying not to upset her. The vet there even called us saints for taking her!

Although it's only been a few hours she seems like a different animal now that we've brought her home. She's both friendly and responsive. Her initial shyness wore off after only an hour and she's spent the afternoon begging for meals and treats. She loves human company, but also seems to be completely comfortable being left alone to amuse herself.

Welcome Sophie.