I spent about a quarter of my reading time this month making my way through two volumes of poetry: Dante’s Inferno and Seth Steinzor’s To Join the Lost. Consequently, my total book count is a little low. There were a couple of four star reads, but nothing absolutely outstanding.

1. The Book of Lies: A Novel by Mary Horlock
Genre: Fiction, 20th Century Historical Fiction
Set on Guernsey in the Channel Islands in 1985 and, in memories and flashback, during the German occupation of the Islands during WWII. Told from the point of view of a teenaged girl who is hiding her involvement with the death of a school mate. A well-told story with lots of new-to-me information.

2. The Spare Room: A Novel by Helen Garner
Genre: Fiction
This novel by Australian author Garner, is based on her personal experience of helping a friend with cancer through the last months of her life, spent living in Garner’s titular spare room. Because it feels like non-fiction, some of the emotions seemed too personal for print. A book to make you think about death, friendship, and emotional honesty.

3. To Join the Lost by Seth Steinzor
Genre: Poetry
A modern envisioning of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, by a Jewish-agnostic-Buddhist. See my review here.

4. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Genre: Fiction
Much-hyped novel set in the Amazon as drug company employee goes looking for a missing research doctor. Not what I expected: it was a little far-fetched, but the writing is beautiful.

5. Grey Mask by Patricia Wentworth
Genre: Vintage Mystery
The very first Miss Maud Silver mystery, written in and set in 1928. Decent mystery, interesting to see Miss Silver in the early days before the character was fully developed.

6. The Inferno (The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell) by Dante Alighieri
Genre: Poetry, Classic
Approached through lots and lots of footnotes (how else can you read a 14th century Italian poet?) I felt I couldn’t really judge the poetry because of the translation issue. Dante imagined a place of eternal torments based on the teachings of his church, and peopled it with 14th century Florentines and ancient Greeks. Judgemental, narrow in historical approach and doctrinally cringe-worthy.

7. The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
Genre: Women’s fiction, 20th century historical fiction
Set in England 1992 and 1942, this was promising but fell so short of delivering. Chock-full of contrived and unbelievable coincidences and mysteries. Not at all up to the standard of The House at Riverton which I enjoyed so much. Even the final ‘reveal’, which is always brilliant in a Morton novel, couldn’t save it.

8. The Bishop Murder Case by S.S. Van Dine
Genre: Vintage mystery
Philo Vance mystery #4 but the first available to me in the Nova Scotia library system. Published in 1928. I know Vance is supposed to be a ‘dandy’ but the book seemed to me to be a vehicle for Van Dine to show off his knowledge of mathematics. Mystery was okay, time & setting (NYC) were delightful.

For my Canadian readers:
The Book Of Lies
The Spare Room
To Join the Lost
State Of Wonder
Grey Mask
The Divine Comedy: Inferno; Purgatorio; Paradiso
Distant Hours
The Bishop Murder Case (a Philo Vance mystery)

Kindle Editions:
The Book of Lies
State of Wonder
Grey Mask: A Miss Silver Mystery (Book One)
Dant’s Divine Comedy (all three books) for .99 cents
The Distant Hours
The Bishop Murder Case: A Philo Vance Story

I’ve joined several TBR (To Be Read) challenges for 2012 that require me to read books I already own. I really do need to make a dent in that stack!

But….. like Judith over at Leeswammes’ Blog, I also have a wishlist. This is a virtual pile of books, that I would like to own or at least read. I keep my list on an Excel spreadsheet and add to it faster than I’ll ever be able to read from it: currently it has 662 titles on it.

So I need Judith’s Wishlist Challenge! It requires me to read 12 books (one for every month of the year) that I’d like to read, but don’t already have on my shelves. The title MUST be on my wish list before January 1, 2012, so I’ve decided to commit to 12 titles right now. And, as a bonus to myself, all of the titles (but one) are fiction and all are by Canadian authors.

1. Mordecai: The Life & Times by Charles Foran

2. Twenty-Six by Leo McKay Jr.

3. Practical Jean by Trevor Cole

4. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

5. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

6. The Beggar’s Garden by Michael Christie

7. Mister Sandman by Barbara Gowdy

8. The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston

9. A Recipe for Bees by Gail Anderson-Dargatz

10. The Birth House by Ami McKay

11. Joyner’s Dream by Sylvia Tyson

12. The Calling: A Hazel Micallef Mystery by Inger Ash Wolfe

COMPLETED

Birgit at The Book Garden is hosting the Tea and Books Reading Challenge for 2012, inspired by C.S. Lewis’ words: “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

To honour the spirit of those words, Birgit has thrown down the gauntlet: to settle in with a large cup of tea, because in this challenge I must read … wait for it … books with more than 700 pages.

Since both A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1474 pages) and London: The Novel by Edward Rutherford (829 pages) are on my reading list for next year, I’m going to enter this one at the Chamomile Lover level and commit to those two books.

YEAR-END UPDATE
Although I didn’t read London, I completed this challenge with the following books:

1. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth 1488 pages

2. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 764 pages

3. 11/22/63 by Stephen King 849 pages

4. Mordecai: His Life & Times by Charles Foran 717 pages (in progress)

COMPLETED

I’ve been looking for a challenge like this one to get me back on track to reading more literary fiction. Books can be winners of any major book award and I’m allowed to read books from different categories of the same award.

Only catch: they must be the prize-winners in 2011. Because of that, and because I’m thinking of really challenging my self and reading only Canadian award winners, I think I’m going to enter at only the Silver lever, requiring me to get 6 to 9 2011 champs under my belt.

The Reading the Award Winners Book Challenge is being hosted by Girl XoXo

I managed to make four of the six Canadian award winners:

1. Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyen: 2011 winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize
The Giller Prize is an annual literary award given to a Canadian author of a novel or short story collection published in English.

2. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes: 2011 winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
The Man Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe.

3. Practical Jean by Trevor Cole: winner of the 2011 Stepehen Leacock Medal for Humour
The Stephen Leacock Award is an annual literary award presented to the best work of humorous literature in English by a Canadian writer.

4. Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpoole: winner of the 2011 John Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal is awarded each year to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

5. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt: winner of the 2011 Governor-General’s Literary Award for Fiction
The Governor-General’s Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields.

6. Mordecai: The Life & Times by Charles Foran: winner of the 2011 Governor-General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction
The Governor-General’s Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields.

This is a fun challenge hosted by BethFishReads.

Here’s how it works: I have to read a book from each of the following categories and I don’t have to make up my list of books now, but can fit them in as I go through the year. YAY!

What’s in a Name Challenge 2012

1. A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llwellyn Completed Oct 2012

2. A book with something you’d see in the sky in the title: Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpoole Completed Oct 2012

3. A book with a creepy crawly in the title: A Recipe for Bees by Gail Anderson-Dergatz Completed Aug 2012

4. A book with a type of house in the title: Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Completed Jan 2012

5. A book with something you’d carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title: Sabine’s Notebook by Nick Bantock Completed Jan 2012

6. A book with a something you’d find on a calendar in the title: The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright Completed Mar 2012

COMPLETED

Ellie over at Musings of a Book Shop Girl is hosting a Mixing It Up 2012 Reading Challenge. This is sort of like the 12 in ’12 Challenge, but Ellie defines the categories in this one. She’s described 16 categories of books and participants can choose any number of categories in which to read at least one book.

I’m going to skip the horror, romance & manga, and enter at the Two-Tier Cake level: getting ambitious with 13 categories. Although I don’t think I have to choose my books now, this will give structure to my reading in the new year. (Although I may make substitutions.)

YEAR-END UPDATE:

1. Classics: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

2. Biography: Mordecai: The Life and Times by Charles Foran

3. Cookery, Food & Wine: Canadian Food Guide by Pierre & Janet Berton

4. History: Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker

5. Modern Fiction: 419 by Will Ferguson

6. Crime & Mystery: Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie

7. Science Fiction & Fantasy: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

8. Travel: Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

9. Poetry & Drama: A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare

10. Journalism & Humour: Notes to My Mother-in-Law by Phyllida Law

11. Science & Natural History: Seeing Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo & Robert Llewellyn

12. Children & Young Adult: A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek

13. Social Sciences & Philosophy: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

COMPLETED

Serena at Savvy Verse & Wit and Anna of Diary of an Eccentric have been co-hosting the War Through the Generations Reading Challenge for the past three years.

They’ve delved into WWII, the Vietnam War and the American Civil War. For 2012, they’ve chosen to focus on WWI (1914-1918), also known as The Great War and The War to End All Wars.

I have a real interest in the time period around this war, which permanently changed the world, and seem to read a lot of literature centered on that era, so I thought this would be a snap. Then I looked at my TBR list for 2012 and realized that none of the books I’ve put on it thus far qualify. AAACK!

But I did find some after all:

So I’m entering at only the WADE level which requires me to read 4-10 books in any genre with WWI as a primary or secondary theme and occurring before, during, or after the war.

1. Blizzard of Glass by Sally M. Walker – non-fiction, middle-school

2. The Absolutist by John Boyne – fiction

3. The Underpainter Read in December 2012 by Jane Urquart – literary fiction

4. Moon Over Manifest by Claire Vanderpoole – fiction, YA, Newbery Medal winner

5. The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller – fiction, mystery

6. An Unmarked Grave: A Bess Crawford mystery by Charles Todd – fiction, mystery

7. The Mapping of Love and Death: a Maisie Dobbs mystery by Jacqueline Winspear – fiction, mystery

8. Broken Music by Marjorie Eccles – fiction, mystery, romance

For the greater part of his life, Seth Steinzor has been enraptured by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. He loved, among other things, the “vivid sensory images, powerful spirituality (and) wicked humor”. To communicate the powerful effect Dante had on him, Steinzor “undertook to rewrite the Comedy as if it had happened to [him]; not as a translation or as an adaptation, but as [his] own experience.” Thus was born To Join the Lost, a modern telling of The Inferno, the first part of Dante’s classic work.

Where Dante was led through hell by the Roman poet Virgil, Steinzor has as his guide none other than Dante himself. This is a clever device that allows comment on the original story and changes Steinzor has made. As Dante observes to him: “But here, where all is lost, the more it changes, the more it’s the same.”

Although human nature remains the same, there are, of course, societal differences between Dante’s world of 1300 and Steinzor’s twenty-first century reality. To the procurers and seducers of Dante’s eighth circle are joined “your porno movie makers; ad execs who swore by the creed, sex sells; (…) wife beaters;“and so on.

Although many will agree that many of the groups Steinzor now incorporates into hell (Wall Street raiders, real estate developers) should indeed be there, some will no doubt take exception to individuals that he includes: Gandhi, Mohammed, and Thomas Jefferson among others. I’m sure that there were those who objected in Dante’s day, to his version. Not all of the individuals are immediately recognizable and many references sent me to Wikipedia, but Dante himself must be approached, as Steinzor says: “though dense encrustations of footnotes”, so I have no complaint with that.

In some cases, I thought the people included in certain areas didn’t reflect Dante’s reasoning at all, but a perspective that is clearly the author’s. Because Steinzor did not just update Dante’s vision: he experienced his own version of the inferno. Some of that change is wrought by differences in both religious outlook & nationality of the two narrators: Dante being a devout Florentine Catholic and Steinzor, a self-admitted ‘agnostic-Jewish-Buddhist-American’.

For example, Steinzor finds Limbo uninhabited.
“Where are all the souls you wrote
you saw here – the virtuous pagans?” I asked (…)”
Flown,” he said, “released by your
‘uncertain disbelief,’ I’ll call it,
from the suspense in which my certainties hung them.”

Satan himself is portrayed as a Disney World version of the Wizard of Oz, located in a silo shaped container at the center of hell:modeled
upon the humble agricultural/
and military storage facilities/ that
dot America’s heartland/ reminding
awestruck visitors/ that the seeds of the past are
missiles aimed at the future (…)

Indeed, Satan now has office hours (9-5 weekdays), a reception area that presents a promotional film, and a souvenir stand. Notably, Satan is absent during Steinzor’s visit. Truly, one wonders how hell itself exists in Steinzor’s reality, given his religious ambiguity.

The author has also retained the ‘wicked humor’ of his mentor. We can clearly see Dante rolling his eyes in this passage: A face,
distorted with rage, rose near us, howling hate.
My guide glancing down, then up to the clouds, said,
Filippo Argenti, you won’t have me this time,
either (…)

Where the book is most touching though, is when Steinzor relates his own life experiences: the friend who committed suicide, or his grandparents’ sad lost dreams. The 19 line ‘story’ of the sexual pervert who approached him in a public shower in his teens left me with my mouth open in horror, sympathy and revulsion.

At the heart of To Join the Lost is the poetry. I believe this work is presented in 10 line stanzas of free verse. This is not necessarily an easy form to work. As T. S. Eliot observed, “No verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” I believe Steinzor has done just that.

Steinzor’s words flow and many of his metaphors are breathtaking and sometimes powerfully precise.
Soon I was treading on a trail of my tears,
dark grey dots on lighter grey.

What does it take to achieve the status of a Dante? Perhaps 700 years of posterity. Steinzor, of course, does not have that. But I do hope that readers will look beyond their personal opinions of the inhabitants of his hell and recognize the beauty in this writing that has indeed presented this trip through the Inferno as if it had happened to the present-day author.

Seth Steinzor’s website: To Join the Lost

TLC Book Tours site for To Join the Lost: November Tour

Thank you to the author and TLC Book Tours for sending me this review copy.

COMPLETED

This challenge, by The Library Thing 12 in ’12 group, requires me to choose any 12 categories of books and read as many books as I like in each.

For now, I’ll commit to just one in each category.

1. Non-Fiction, Food & Cooking: Pierre & Janet Berton’s Canadian Food Guide

2. Non-Fiction, Memoir: Memoirs by Pierre Elliott Trudeau

3. Non-Fiction, Travel: Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

4. Non-Fiction, History: Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917 by Sally M. Walker

5. Non-Fiction, Social Sciences: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

6. Fiction, Short Stories: African Love Stories edited by Ama Ata Aidoo

7. Fiction, Young Adult: 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

8. Fiction, Children: A Prairie Boy’s Winter by William Kurelek

9. Fiction, Sci-Fi: The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

10. Fiction, Romance: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

11. Fiction, Historical Fiction/ Plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

12. Fiction, Vintage Mystery: Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie

The challenges to read my TBR pile just keep, well – ‘piling’ up! This TBR Pile Challenge, hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader requires me to list in advance the 12 books from my shelves that I pledge to read.

Each of these 12 books must have been on my bookshelf or “To Be Read” list for AT LEAST one full year. This means the book cannot have a publication date of 1/1/2010 or later.

You’ll no doubt recognize some of these titles as crossovers from other challenges I’ve entered, but I’m assuming that’s okay with Adam.

1. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth Completed Apr 2012

2. London: The Novel by Edward Rutherford

3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Completed Jul 2012

4. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler Completed Sep 2012

5. A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence Completed Sep 2012

6. My Financial Career and Other Follies by Stephen Leacock Completed Feb 2012

7. Memoirs by Pierre Elliott Trudeau Completed Nov 2012

8. The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881 by Pierre Berton

9. Walden by Henry David Thoreau Completed Mar 2012

10. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck Completed Sep 2012

11. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury Completed Sep 2012

12. The Museum of Dr. Moses by Joyce Carol Oates Completed Oct 2012

Two (2) alternates are allowed, just in case one or two of the books end up in the “can’t get through” pile. I’m choosing two super-easy ones, just in case.

1. Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie Completed Jun 2012

2. Halfway House by Ellery Queen Completed Dec 2012

FAILED TO COMPLETE

The Smooth Criminals 2012 Challenge, hosted by Ben at Dead End Follies is a mystery reading challenge with an edge. Participants are required to read only eight books this year, one in each of the following categories.

For those unfamiliar with the tougher mysteries, the distinctions between genres can be fine. One of Ben’s goals was to make us do some research – and that’s what I did.

So the categories and my choices are:

1. Hardboiled Classic (Wikipedia: Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style, most commonly associated with detective stories, distinguished by the unsentimental portrayal of violence and sex.): One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane

2. Noir Classic (Wikipedia: Noir fiction is the name sometimes given to a mode of crime fiction regarded as a subset of the hardboiled style. (…) In this sub-genre, the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. He is someone tied directly to the crime, not an outsider called to solve or fix the situation.): Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain

3. You Got Nothing Coming: Notes From a Prison Fish by Jimmy Lerner

4. Book written by a writer who did time: The Big Gold Dream by Chester Himes

5. A book with a Psychopath protagonist: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

6. Classic Gothic fiction: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

7. Non-Crime Book where the plot revolves around crime: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8. The “Why the hell am I doing this to myself?” book: Promise Me Eternity by Ian Fox

Didn’t I tell you I was an addict? This Off the Shelf Challenge, hosted by Bonnie at Bookish Ardour, is a gimme: reading books for several other challenges fulfills it. I’m signing up so I can up my number for the I’m an Addict challenge!

I’m in at the “On a Roll” level to read 50 of my own books next year.

1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
2 MacBeth by William Shakespeare
3. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
4. My Financial Career and Other Follies by Stephen Leacock
5. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
6. A Jest of God by Maragaret Laurence
7. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
8. Memoirs by Pierre Elliott Trudeau
9. The Canadian Food Guise by Pierre & Janet Berton
10. Heading Home: On Starting a New Life in a Country Place by Laurence Scanlan

11. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
12. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
13. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
14. Jane Eyre
15. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
16. Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
17. White River Junctions by Dave Norman
18. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
19. The Museum of Dr. Moses by Joyce Carol Oates
20. The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill

21. The Mapping of Love & Death by Jacqueline Winspear
22. Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie
23. Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie
24. At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie
25. Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie
26. The Tragedy of ‘Z’ by Ellery Queen
27. Halfway House by Ellery Queen Read December 2012
28. QBI (Queen’s Bureau of Investigation) by Ellery Queen
29. One Lonely Night by Mickey Spillane

30. Trixie Belden & the Red Trailer Mystery
by Julie Campbell
31. These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wolder
32. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
33. A Place for Johnny Bill by Ruth Juline Bishop
34. A Prairie Boy’s Winter by Willima Kurelek
35. The Market Square Dog by James Herriott
36. Coyote Sings to the Moon by Thomas King
37. One Winter Night

“What kind of man goes to one of the biggest rock concerts of the sixties, manages to drown in a nearby irrigation canal an hour into the show, and is never identified?”

With that opening sentence, Altamont Augie by Richard Barager grabbed my attention and riveted me for 300 pages.

The 1969 concert held at Altamont Raceway outside San Francisco was meant to be California’s version of Woodstock, but became an infamous debacle after concert security (manned by Hell’s Angels) stabbed a man to death. (This is not the fictional man who drowned in the canal.)

Richard Barager’s debut novel is set against the back drop of 1960s America, the Vietnam War, and the ever increasingly violent anti-war protests of the time. It is the story of David and Jackie, young people on opposite sides of those divisive issues, but who have a passion for each other that connects them through it all. David’s story unfolds in Vietnam, Jackie’s at the University of Minnesota and in California. After David’s tour of duty, he returns to the States and takes up his relationship with Jackie who is now involved with Kyle Levy, a militant anti-establishment activist.

The identity of the man in the canal is determined early on in the book but the answer to the question “What kind of man…?” remains, and is answered by the story that follows. The plot advances steadily and evenly over the five year period from 1964 to 1969, building to a climax at the Altamont concert.

I came of age in the late sixties and early seventies and although I was just a year or two too young for Woodstock, I embraced the ‘summer of love’ and peace movement ideology as most of my friends did. Being Canadians removed us from the immediate political arena around Vietnam, allowing us to see the issue from only one side. It was the era of not only “Mary Quant miniskirts, white go-go boots, flash cubes, color broadcasting on all three networks, and static-free radio”; to us the times were world-changing and thus clothed in importance and valour. So I was astounded to read the narrator’s opinion: “No matter how absurd the decade appeared in the century’s rear-view mirror, it had at least aspired to be relevant.” Absurd?! We were absurd? No way!

Barager’s writing style is slightly pretentious in his use of large words on nearly every page. Gems such as ‘senescence’, ‘leporine’, and ‘reliquary’ at first sent me running to my dictionary. But that was interrupting the story, so I marked them for further research and determined from the context meanings close enough to allow me to understand the story and move on.

But the overdone vocabulary is my only complaint about this book. Barager has crafted a keenly insightful look into the politics of the 1960s, presenting both sides, but with a protagonist who represents a view that was decidedly unpopular among youth of the day. How had it come to this, he wondered, needing to persuade an entire generation of Americans that it was better to win a war than to lose one? In some ways, this is a courageous book, as many still hold those views of their youth, and America and perhaps the world may still be as divided as ever on that issue.

But I would urge you to keep an open mind and read this book. I learned a lot about the decade that I’d not known – because I was young, because I’m Canadian, and because my friends accepted the issues superficially, as did many youth. Even if you were more involved in the politics of the era, you’ll be certain to learn aspects of the fight on both sides that will make you reflect. If you missed the sixties the first time around, I can’t think of a better introduction to the issues of the day than Altamont Augie.

When I first read Altamont Augie, I rated it 4.5 stars but over the last month and a half, it’s provided much fuel for discussion in our household and food for thought. It’s been a while since I’ve read such a thought-provoking book, one that stays with me as Augie has, so I’ve upped my rating to a full five stars,

Altamont Augie for my Canadian readers

Altamont Augie for Kindle

I know I’m a day late but I do have an explanation.

Heavy rain started here in Nova Scotia about midnight Thursday and continued on until supper time Friday. In all, about 56 mm (just over 2 inches) came down in that time period. I took this photo Friday morning from my office window, thinking that the rain was benefiting the view: making the sere colours of November deepen and glow.

We had a dinner reservation with some friends in Halifax (about a two hour drive) and were amazed to see the water on the way: ditches running white water rapids, streams flowing through fields and down hillsides where there had been no streams a day earlier, standing water making hay fields resemble rice paddies, but the roads were fine even through Truro which sits on a flood plain at the end of the Bay of Fundy (highest tides in the world!)

Truro is located at the far right end of the water in this diagram (just off the map) – past where it says tides are 49 feet (15 m).

Ah – but supper time was low tide. By the time we traveled home at 10 that evening, matters were different. We saw a car abandoned in the Sobey’s parking lot, water up to the middle of its doors. And we found all the access roads through & around Truro closed because of flooding, necessitating some quick thinking and back roads to get home.

None of my photos turned out because it was too dark – but trust me: what looks so benign in my front yard was anything but at high tide in Truro.

Here’s a boost to get me going on my Mount TBR Challenge!

C.B. at Ready When You Are, C.B. is hosting a TBR Double Dare. The rule is that from Jan 1 to April 1, 2012, I can read only books from my TBR pile. (Library books are allowed only if they are in my possession or on my holds list at 12:00 A.M. on Jan. 1.)

That ought to promote some discipline in my life!

COMPLETED

I’m starting to compile my year list of books I’ve read in 2011 and I’m astounded at the number of mysteries I’ve consumed this past year: about 35% of my reading. That, combined with the fact that I’ve already signed up for the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge makes Cruisin’ through the Cozies, hosted by Yvonne at Socrates’ Book Reviews an easy fit.

I wasn’t going to enter at the Super Sleuth level but after compiling those stats, I’m thinking it will be a piece of cake to read 13 or more cozy mysteries in 2012.

1. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (A Flavia deLuce mystery) by Alan Bradley

2. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

3. The Mapping of Love & Death (a Maisie Dobbs mystery) by Jacqueline Winspear

4. A Lesson in Secrets (a Maisie Dobbs mystery) by Jacqueline Winspear

5. Elegy for Eddie (a Maisie Dobbs mystery) by Jacqueline Winspear

6. Murder: a Crafty Business by Lila Philips

7. The Crime at Black Dudley (an Albert Campion mystery) by Margery Allingham

8. Falling into Green: an Eco-Mystery by Cher Fischer

9. An Unmarked Grave (a Bess Crawford mystery) by Charles Todd

10. Murder at Hazelmoor by Agatha Christie

11. Dead Man’s Folly (an Hercule Poirot mystery) by Agatha Christie

12. At Bertram’s Hotel (a Miss Jane Marple mystery) by Agatha Christie

13. Postern of Fate (a Tommy & Tuppence Beresford mystery) by Agatha Christie

14. The Dog Who Knew Too Much (a Chet & Bernie mystery) by Spencer Quinn

15. Fistful of Collars (a Chet & Bernie mystery) by Spencer Quinn

16. The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern (an Asey Mayo mystery) by Phoebe Atwood Taylor

17. Trixie Belden & the Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell

18. The Tragedy of Z (a Drury Lane mystery) by Ellery Queen

19. Halfway House (an Ellery Queen mystery) by Ellery Queen

Katherine over at November’s Autumn is hosting another Classics Challenge, but this with a bit of a twist. I’m required to read seven classics in 2012, only three of which may be rereads. And then on the 4th of every month, I’ll be posting thoughts on the current book in the challenge by answering a general prompt we find on Katherine’s blog that day.

It’s okay with Katherine if I double up my books for Sarah’s Back to the Classics Challenge, but I’m going to try a mix: some crossovers and a few new ones.

Subject to availability and other favourable circumstance, I’ll read these seven books:

1. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
2. The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
3. Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
4. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway (read in December 2012)
5. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
6. Little Women by L.M. Alcott (the only re-read)
7. A Jane Austen other than Pride & Prejudice
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

COMPLETED

Melissa at Literary Escapism is hosting her 4th annual New Authors Reading Challenge and, since it’s new-to-me, rather than new-to-market authors, I’m in.

I do plan to touch base with a lot of familiar writers this year, by working on my TBR pile, but out of 150 books I must surely be able to read 25 new-to-me authors. So that’s my goal.

How about you? Are you staying with old friends this year or expanding your horizons with new-to-you authors?

JANUARY:
1. Bantock, Nick: Griffin and Sabine trilogy
2. Schwarz, John Burnham : Northwest Corner
3. Wingfield, Jenny: The Homecoming of Samuel Lake
4. McKay, Ami: The Virgin Cure
5. Pratchett, Terry: The Carper People
6. Coady, Lynn: The Antagonist
7. Walker, Sally M.: Blizzard of Glass
8. Beecher Stowe, Harriet: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

FEBRUARY
9. Grenville, Kate: The Secret River
10. Kurelek, William: A Prairie Boy’s Winter
11. McKay, Dr. Gary D.: A Shortage of Bodies
12. Hugo, Nancy: Seeing Trees
13. Twead, Victoria: Chickens, Mules, & Two Old Fools

MARCH
14. Speller, Elizabeth: The Return of Captain John Emmett
15. Thoreau, Henry David: Walden
16. Kotler, Steven: A Small Furry Prayer
17. Edugyen, Esi: Half-Blood Blues
18. Chesterton, G.K.: The Innocence of Father Brown
19. Eccles, Marjorie: Broken Music
20. Wolfe, Inger Ash: The Calling
21. Harbach, Chad: The Art of Fielding

APRIL
22. Seth, Vikram: A Suitable Boy
23. Hewitt, Robert G.: Winnie & Gurley
24. Harris, Jane: Gillespie & I
25. McCleen, Grace: The Land of Decoration

MAY
26. Kaufman, Andrea Kayne: Oxford Messed Up
27. Fox, Ian: Promise Me Eternity
28. Asher, Jay: 13 Reasons Why
29. Johnston, Wayne: The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
30. Collins, Wilkie: The Woman in White
31. Law, Phyllida: Notes to My Mother-in-Law

JUNE
32. Philips, Lila: Murder is a Crafty Business
33. Humphrey, Mrs.: Manners for Women
34. Allingham, Margery: The Crime at Black Dudley
35. Spillane, Mickey: One Lonely Night
36. Leonard, Annie: The Story of Stuff
37. Stenson, Fred: Lonesome Hero
38. Tomaiuolo, Nicholas G.: UContent

JULY
39. Fischer, Cher: Falling Into Green
40. Ferguson, Will: 419
41. Barnes, Julian: The Sense of an Ending
42. Bronte, Charlotte: Jane Eyre
43. Livesay, Margot: The Flight of Gemma Hardy

AUGUST
44. Scanlan, Lawrence: Heading Home: On Starting a New Life in a Country Place
45. Boyne, John: The Absolutist
46. Anderson-Dergatz, Gail: A Recipe for Bees
47. Savage, Sam: Firmin
48. Cole, Trevor: Practical Jean
49. Godden, Rumer: The Dolls’ House

SEPTEMBER
50. Sherrill, Steven: The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
51. Wilder, Thornton: The Bridge of San Luis Rey
52. Lawson, Mary: Crow Lake
53. Marshall, William: Yellowthread Street

OCTOBER
54. Rushdie, Salman: Midnight’s Children
55. Vanderpoole, Claire: Moon Over Manifest
56. McKay, Leo Jr.: Twenty-Six
57. Llewellyn, Richard: How Green Was My Valley
58. George, Jean Craighead: Julie of the Wolves

NOVEMBER
59. Camus, Albert: The Stranger
60. Glass, Julia: Three Junes
61. Innes, Michael: Death at the President’s Lodging
62. DeWitt, Patrick: The Sisters Brothers
63. Christie, Michael: The Beggar’s Garden
64. Sachar, Louis: Holes
65. Waugh, Evelyn: Men at Arms
66. Trudeau, Pierre Elliott: Memoirs

DECEMBER
67. Powers, Richard: The Echo Maker
68. Gowdy, Barbara: Mr. Sandman
69. Ondaatje, Michael: Cat’s Table
70. Hemingway, Ernest: The Old Man and the Sea
71. Foran, Charles: Mordecai: the Life and Times

COMPLETED

Sarah, in my native Southern Ontario, blogs on Workaday Reads and won the lottery to host the official eBook Reading Challenge for 2012.

Since I won a Kindle in the fall and have yet to get into a really regular routine of reading from it, I thought I’d enter this to provide a little motivation. But just a little: I’ve joined at CD level – a commitment to read 10 eBooks in 2012. After all, I have that TBR mountain to climb.

SUCCESS!

1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

2. Dove Creek

3. A Shortage of Bodies by Dr. Gary D. McKay

4. Chickens, Mules, & Two Old Fools by Victoria Twead

5. The Innocence of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton

6. The Calling by Inger Ash Wolfe

7. Winnie & Gurley by Robert G. Hewitt

8. Promise Me Eternity by Ian Fox

9. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

10. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

11. Falling into Green by Cher Fischer

Over the last few years, I’ve let slide reading classics so The Back to Classic Challenge 2012 hosted by SarahReadsTooMuch seems perfect to me.

Just what is a classic? Sarah defines it as “any book that has left its mark on the world.(…)In most cases these books are old.” The only question I have: What constitutes “old”? Something published in the 1950s is over half a century already, but is that a classic?

Nonetheless, I’ve tried (with one exception) to keep to books published before 1930. I admit that I’ve had trouble coming up with ideas to fit these categories (set by Sarah), so if any of you have any suggestions, I’d be glad to hear them.

Any 19th Century Classic
WALDEN by Henry David Thoreau

Any 20th Century Classic
The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder
THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN by G.K. Chesterton

Reread a classic of your choice
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott

A Classic Play
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM by William Shakespeare

Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction
THE MOONSTONE by Wilkie Collins

Classic Romance
JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte

Read a Classic that has been translated from its original language to yours
Essays by Michel de Montaigne

THE STRANGER by Albert Camus

Classic Award Winner
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton Pulitzer Prize for Literature 1921
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA by Ernest Hemingway (read in December 2012) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Literature 1953

Read a Classic set in a Country that you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (set in China)
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder (set in Peru)