The Content Reader

In the end of the year we always look back on the year that has been. Not only when it comes to books, but life in general. I am preparing my statistics for the year, but I thought I will reveal, on this day before Christmas, the books I like best during the year. I have enjoyed most of the books I have read, but for the really best, I have limited the number to three. All of them new authors to me. All of them have been on my TBR shelves for some years. I just wonder why? J.P. Hartley - The Go-Between - a wonderful book about a young boys experience in his teens. Being the messenger for a couple in love and all the consequences it led to. Iain Pears - The Dream of Scipio - a great book which has parallel stories and how history never changes. Thomas Mann - The Buddenbrooks - his masterpiece and a fantastic family saga written in unforgettable prose. You are right there with the family. Wishing you a peaceful Christmas! Tomorrow we travel to my parents and the real Chri...

Another month and another chain. I am joining Books Are My Favourite And Best for another six degrees. This month the chain starts with Wild Swans by Jung Chang. I read it many years ago, and loved it. It is a family saga that spans three female generations in China. I love family sagas so I go from here to The Empress of South America by Nigel Cawthorne. It is the story of a middle class Irish girl who went to Paris and ended up the wife of the emperor of Paraguay. It is a true story of how two, evil people made a whole country their private family business. Quite intriguing and chocking. From royalty to royalty I go to Mrs Jordan's Profession , by Claire Tomalin. It is a biography about the Anglo-Irish actress, courtesan and mistress of the future King William IV of UK. They had ten illegitimate children together. Fascinating story about a fascinating woman far ahead of her time.

I have a pile of five books that I read lately and have not yet reviewed. Here are mini reviews of the books, although some of them really deserves a 'real' review. The Last Girls by Lee Smith A wonderful book about a group of young girls who, while in college, decides to go in the footsteps of Huckleberry Finn, and go down the Mississippi on a raft. Thirty-five years later four of them meets to make a different trip down the Mississippi. "Baby", who was the 'wild one' during their college years, has died and her husband has asked her friends to take her ashes down the river to commemorate their earlier trip. Harriet, a teacher, unmarried, careful, not taking any risks. Courtney, married rich and have to deal with her husbands infidelity and her mother-in-law's dominance. Anna, comes från poor circumstances, got a scholarship to college and is now a successful bestseller author. Catherine, the southern beauty who went against her upbringing to bec...

Bev at My Reader's Block is hosting the Mount My TBR challenge. She has called for the first check point and here is mine. As of 31 March I have read 15 books from my TBR pile and that has taken me to the top of Pike's Peak (4.302 m or 14,155 ft or 12 books) and 1.202 m or 3,943 ft or 3 books) up the Mont Blanc. I am steady on my way. 9 more books to reach the peak on 4.808 m (15,774 ft). I hope to read at least 100 books this year, but all of them will not be from my TBR pile, so the end of the year will tell which mountain I will climb. Here are a few things Bev asks us to consider.