End of Year Wrap-Up

So it looks like I read 81 books this past year. That seems a bit excessive to most people except that a few were re-reads (which go faster) and many were young adult novels and series'. Most of it was light and fluffy and fun.

I have a new goal for next year.

When I was young, my family would often play a card game called Authors. It is essentially the same as Go Fish with a literary twist. There are 13 Authors represented and each one has four cards. Each card represents one of their books, usually the more famous or popular ones. These means there are 52 books (in a few cases, poems) represented. These authors and books were considered to be "the classics." Many I have read as required reading in high school or college but I haven't read them all.

I have decided to try to read them all. A daunting task considering that I will still read my book club books and probably a junk book or two for reprieve. I doubt that I'll get them all read this year but I'll give it a go and see how far I get.

Here's the list:

James Fenimore Cooper

The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Spy, The Pathfinder

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven Gables, Twice-Told Tales, The Wonder Book

Sir Walter Scott

The Talisman, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth, The Lady of the Lake

Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Alhambra, Tales of a Traveler

Louisa May Alcott

Little Men, Little Women, Eight Cousins, An Old-Fashioned Girl

Edgar Allan Poe

Fall of the House of Usher, God Bug, The Raven, Annabel Lee

Henry W Longfellow

Courtship of Miles Standish, Song of Hiawatha, The Village Blacksmith, Evangeline

William Makepeace Thackeray

Henry Esmond, Vanity Fair, The Virginians, Pendennis

Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, The Mysterious Stranger, Tom Sawyer

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Crossing the Bar, Idylls of the King, Charge of the Light Brigade, The Brook

William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest

Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, A Child's Garden of Verses, Kidnapped

Charles Dickens

The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol

Wish me luck! Have a safe and happy New Year's eve!

City of Thieves

City of Thieves by David Benioff

This book takes place during World War II in Leningrad during the "seige of Leningrad". Our narrator and main character is alleged to be the author's grandfather, Lev Beniov. The author visits his grandparents in Florida and asks them for their stories of the seige. His grandmother won't talk about it but his grandfather tells his story. When the grandson asks for more details to fill in the gaps, his grandfather tells him, "make it up, you're a writer"

Lev is seventeen and not old enough to join the army. After his mother and sister are evacuated to the country, Lev remains behind in Leningrad. He and his friends are on fire watch duty when they spot a paratrooper falling from the sky. With the hope of food, specifically chocolate, they decide to break curfew and run into the street where the body lay. The teens don't find chocolate but brandy or schnapps and Lev procures a knife. When the police arrive, all escape but Lev.

After surviving the night in the prison known as The Crosses, Lev and his cell mate, Kolya are taken to the NKVD headquarters in Leningrad. Kolya is a soldier in the Red Army who was picked up for desertion. Lev is being held for looting. The general of the NKVD charges them with a task: bring him a dozen eggs for his daughter's wedding cake. If they do not, they will be found and shot. If they do, they will get first class ration cards.

This book is the tale of two young men who become friends as they make their way through food deficient Leningrad and out into the countryside. They have to get by both the Red Army as well as the German Army in their quest.

This was a very good book I highly recommend it.

Clockwork Prince

Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare

This is Book 2 of the Infernal Devices series and it picks up right where Clockwork Angel ended.

It is a fun fast read that is young adult fiction.

I may just stop and wait for all the books to be written in this and the "modern" series The Mortal Instruments. Then, I can start at the beginning and read them all in succession. Maybe not.

The frustrating aspect of these books is that the teen characters are so characteristically teen that I want to slap them up side the head. I just keep thinking, "if they'd only just say what they mean/feel, this could be resolved immediately." But, of course, that doesn't happen in teenager world and it would make the books much shorter to boot.