The Local Lit Scene

celebrating South African Literature beyond our past

Christmas Wish Lists

So 2016 is coming to an end….Did you have a good reading year?

This year I decided not to challenge myself to a certain number of books read as last year, I challenged myself to 100, and even though I made it, I found that I was just reading to make up my 100 instead of enjoying the process of reading, pondering and then finding a new book to read. Sometimes I like to stay in the world of the characters that I have just left without launching straight into the covers of another book. One book this year, which stayed with me was Station 11,  and even now I find myself pondering the characters and the story line.

But according to Goodreads this year I have read 49 books, 16000 pages, half of last year, and  I don’t feel too much loss at having only managed 50 books ( I will have read at least 2 or 3 more by the end of December….)

But this post is meant to be about books I want not what I have read, I will do another post later on with some of my best reads for 2016. There were some goodies…

Here are my top 3 books on my wish list, have you read them?

beasts

Fantastic Beasts and where to find them – the screenplay – JK Rowling. (Need to take myself to watch the movie sooooon!)

universe

Holding up the universe – Jennifer Niven. ( I LOVED All the Bright Places, seriously if you haven’t read it, please do. Drop everything else and just read it)

backman

And every morning the way home gets longer and longer – Fredrik Backman. Adore this authors novels!

What is on your list this year? Let us know in the comments!

 

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Books of 2010

I was aiming to read 50 books this year, which may or may not sound like a lot to you, but alas I didn’t make it. I did manage to read 45 (or to be completely honest, am 3/4  way through book no 45*) but will most likely be finished by tomorrow  so I’m counting it in.

I failed miserably at doing any of the challenges that I planned to, I only managed to read one book from the GLBT challenge and I still have other books on my list which are sitting in my bookshelf awaiting my eyes to peruse them.

What I did learn about myself, is that I am not a List reader. I need to go searching for something which tickles my fancy at a particular time and then read it, which doesn’t work so well for challenges, but I may aim to try it again sometime. Another thing which I have learnt over the last year reading wise, is that sometimes I am just not in the mood to read, whoever would of thought I would utter such words, but it’s true. Between work and toddler play, life gets busy and  at bedtime, I can barely keep my eyes open to read a page, never mind a chapter but my holiday has rectified that for  now at least.

So, without further ado, I give to you my list of books I read this year. Not all of them have reviews.

  1. We be reading  – Sue Gee
  2. Northern Lights – Phillip Pullman
  3. The Angels game – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  4. The Subtle Knife – Phillip Pullman
  5. Micheal Tolliver lives – Armistead Maupin
  6. The Marriage Bureau for rich people – Farahad Zama
  7. Where Rainbows end – Cecilia Ahern
  8. The Elegance of the hedgehog –  Muriel Burbery
  9. Rumour has it – Jill Mansell
  10. Indigo Children – Lee Carroll, Jan Tober
  11. The Mother Daughter Dance – Harriet Lerner Ph.D
  12. The Swan Thieves – Elizabeth Kostova
  13. Natural Flights of the Human Mind – Clare Morrall
  14. A Million Miles from Normal – Paige Nick
  15. The eye of the world – Robert Jordan
  16. The Great Hunt – Robert Jordan
  17. Sparkles – Louise Bagshaw
  18. Blankets – Craig Thompson
  19. The Forty Rules of Love – Elif Shafak
  20. Mushy peas on toast -Laurian Clemence
  21. Pippi long stocking – Astrid Lindgren
  22. One fifth Avenue – Candace Bushnell
  23. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society – Mary Ann Shaffer
  24. Our Tragic Universe – Scarlett Thomas
  25. The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs – Jack Gantos
  26. A pyschic in new york
  27. The Host – Stephanie Meyer
  28. Tom Bedlam – George Hagen
  29. Slam – Nick Hornby
  30. Tea Time for the traditionally built – Alexander McCall Smith
  31. I don’t like chocolate – Jesse Breytenbach
  32. The Childrens book – A.S Byatt
  33. Penny Vincenzi- the other woman
  34. Louise Bagshawe – Passion
  35. The pillars of the earth – Ken Follet
  36. The last Dragonslayer – Jasper Fforde
  37. The love verb – Jane Green
  38. How to raise happy healthy children – Sally Ann Creed and Andalene Salvesen
  39. Haroun and the sea of stories -Salmon Rushdie
  40. Room – Emma Donahue
  41. Ladies who lunch – Linda Francis Lee
  42. Toby Alone- Timothee de Fombelle
  43. A book of a  thousand days- Shannon Hale
  44. Aphrodite – Erica Jong
  45. Helen of Troy – Margaret George *

Hmm, looking at this lists, I realise, I will need to do more reviews on my reading!

Here’s to a great book year, leave a comment, and let me know where you book at, love checking out new book blogs:-)

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What are you reading this week?

Apologies for lack of posting here, I had decided I needed a little ‘time out’ from the computer. You know when it drains your energy rather than compliments it? Well, that was how it was this past week.  But, here we are, back in the land of the living with lots of reading going on.

GirlReading

I am currently reading my Jasper Fforde book – Shades of Grey but before that I had a spate of other books including:

* finishing the Northern Lights series by Phillip Pullman – I will be putting up a review, but have to honest and say it may take some time as it had a fair amount of stuff in it, which needs to perculate before penning

* We be reading – Sue Gee, a lovely book about two life long friends and their ups and downs in life.  Simple, easy reading.

* Rumour has it – Jill Mansell, another light hearted chick lit book, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

* The Elegance of the hedgehog – Beautiful beautiful book, keep your eyes peeled for the review from a million miles from normal who won the ‘feel the love‘ book for valentines day.

* And the usual  5 books read to my daughter before bed!

We are always looking for reviews, so if you have read something so good or so bad that you want to shout it from the window tops, please send them in! and go on, spill the beans, what are you reading this week?

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