drachenbraut23 (Bianca) enjoys the festive Winter season!

Again, everyone is welcome to my last thread for this year. As always have fun just by lurking, discussing or whatever you desire *smile* I do love visitors :)

First 75 books read this year

#001 The Magician King - Lev Grossman
#002 The Bone Palace - Amanda Downum
#003 Bone Crossed - Patricia Briggs
#004 Silver Borne - Patricia Briggs
#005 On the Prowl - Patricia Briggs and others - Short Stories
#006 Naamah's Blessing - Jacqueline Carey
#007 Glimpses - Lynn Flewelling - Nightrunner Short Stories
#008 American Gods - Neil Gaiman
#009 The Left Hand of God - Paul Hoffman
#010 The Last four Things - Paul Hoffman
#011 Heir to Sevenwaters - Juliet Marillier
#012 Seer of Sevenwaters - Juliet Marillier
#013 Archangel's Blade - Nalini Singh
#014 Heart's Blood - Juliet Marillier
#015 Shalador's Lady - Anne Bishop
#016 Magician - Raymond E. Feist
#017 Eon: Dragoneye Reborn - Alison Goodman
#018 Silverthorn - Raymond E. Feist
#019 Darkness at Sethanon - Raymond E. Feist
#020 Bloodchild and other Stories - Octavia E. Butler - Short Stories
#021 Fledgling - Octavia E. Butler
#022 A green Guide to natural Beauty - Karen Gilbert
#023 Dog Blood - David Moody
#024 Darker After Midnight - Lara Adrian
#025 Feed - Mira Grant
#026 Der verwaiste Thron 01. Sturm - Claudia Kern
#027 Der verwaiste Thron 02. Verrat - Claudia Kern
#028 Der verwaiste Thron 03. Rache - Claudia Kern
#029 The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
#030 33 A.D. - David McAfee
#031 The Coming of the Wolf - A. E. McCullough
#032 Jekka's Complete Herb Book - Jekka McVicar
#033 Kiss of Snow - Nalini Singh
#034 Pleasure of a Dark Prince - Kresley Cole
#035 Demon from the Dark - Kresley Cole
#036 Dreams of a Dark Warrior - Kresley Cole
#037 Lothaire - Kresley Cole
#038 The Summoner - Gail Z. Martin
#039 Kraken - China Mieville
#040 Embassytown - China Mieville
#041 Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
#042 Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
#043 Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
#044 Dragon Bound - Thea Harrison
#045 Storm's Heart - Thea Harrison
#046 Serpent's Kiss - Thea Harrison
#047 True Colour's - Thea Harrison
#048 Oracle's Moon - Thea Harrison
#049 Natural Evil - Thea Harrison
#050 Phoenix Chronicles - Lori Handeland - Abandoned
#051 Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews
#052 Magic Burns - Ilona Andrews
#053 Magic Strikes - Ilona Andrews
#054 Magic Bleeds - Ilona Andrews
#055 Magic Slays - Ilona Andrews
#056 When Darkness comes - Alexandra Ivy
#057 Embrace the Darkness - Alexandra Ivy
#058 Darkness Everlasting - Alexandra Ivy
#059 Darkness Revealed - Alexandra Ivy
#060 Darkness Unleashed - Alexandra Ivy
#061 Beyond the Darkness - Alexandra Ivy
#062 Devoured by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy
#063 Bound by Darkness - Alexandra Ivy
#064 Das erste Horn. Das Geheimnis von Askir - Richard Schwartz
#065 The Blood King - Gail Z. Martin
#066 Dark Haven - Gail Z. Martin
#067 Dark Lady's Chosen - Gail Z. Martin
#068 The Sworn - Gail Z. Martin
#069 The Dread - Gail Z. Martin
#070 Ätherische Öle selbst herstellen - Brigitte Malle
#071 Lexikon der kosmetischen Rohstoffe - Brigitte Bräutigam
#072 Hater - David Moody
#073 Green for life - Victoria Boutenko
#074 Green Smoothie Revolution - Victoria Boutenko
#075 Scar Night - Alan Campbell - Deepgate Codex 01

Second 75 this year

#076 Stardust - Neil Gaiman
#077 Nocturnes and Preludes - Neil Gaiman
#078 Third Sight - Ian Woodhead
#079 Die zweite Legion - Richard Schwartz
#080 Das Auge der Wüste - Richard Schwartz
#081 Der Herr der Puppen - Richard Schwartz
#082 Never let me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
#083 Hounded - Kevin Hearne
#084 Hexed - Kevin Hearne
#085 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami
#086 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
#087 The Book of Human Skin - Michelle Lovric
#088 Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
#089 The Cry of the Dove - Fadia Faquir
#090 When She Woke - Hillary Jordan
#091 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
#092 Man Eating Bugs: Art and Science of Eating Insects - Peter Menzel
#093 Tales from Outer Suburbia - Shaun Tan
#094 Going Raw - Judita Wignall
#095 Instructions - Neil Gaiman
#096 Soap - Tatyana Hill
#097 The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
#098 500 Formulas for Aromatherapy: Mixing Essential Oils for Every Use - Carol Schiller, David Schiller
#099 The Dovekeepers - Alice Hoffman
#100 Household Stories. From the collection of the Brothers Grimm. Translated from the German by Lucy Crane
#101 The Aromatherapy Bible: The Definitive Guide to Using Essential Oils - Gill Farrer-Halls
#102 The City & The City - China Mieville
#103 Naked Chocolate - David Wolfe
#104 The Chrysalids - John Wyndham
#105 Alice Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
#106 Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
#107 Tigana - Guy Gavriel Kay
#108 The Cry of the Icemark - Stuart Hill
#109 Dracula - Bram Stoker
#110 Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
#111 Zombie Fallout - Mark Tufo
#112 A Plague Upon Your Family - Mark Tufo
#113 The End .... - Mark Tufo
#114 The End Has Come and Gone - Mark Tufo
#115 Alive In A Dead World - Mark Tufo
#116 Slated - Teri Terry
#117 Before I Fall - Lauren Oliver
#118 Among Others - Jo Walton
#119 The Island of Dr Moreau - H.G. Wells
#120 The World of William Clissold - H.G. Wells
#121 The Country of the Blind - H.G. Wells
#122 The Invisible Man - H.G. Wells
#123 Blade of Fire - Stuart Hill
#124 A Princess of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
#125 Herland - Charlotte Perkins Gilman
#126 Before I go to Sleep - SJ Watson
#127 The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
#128 Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Murakami
#129 The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
#130 Who Fears Death - Nnedi Okorafor
#131 The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
#132 Gourmet Soaps Made Easy - Melinda Coss
#133 The Lost Thing - Shaun Tan
#134 The Natural Soap Chef - Heidi Corley Barto
#135 Making Handmade Soap - Tatyana Hill
#136 Birthmarked - Caragh M. O'Brien
#137 Tortured: A bridge story between Birthmarked and Prized - Caragh M. O'Brien
#138 Prized - Caragh M. O'Brien
#139 Gaudi 150 Photographs - George R. Collins
#140 The Walking Dead Volume 1 - Robert Kirkman
#141 The Walking Dead Volume 2 - Robert Kirkman
#142 Atemschaukel - Herta Müller
#143 The Hunger Angel - Herta Müller
#144 Neonatology at a Glance - Tom Lissauer
#145 Saved - Allegra Skye
#146 The Walking Dead Volume 3 - Robert Kirkman
#147 The Read Tree - Shaun Tan
#148 Billy, Me & You - Nicola Streeten
#149 The Stormcaller - Tom Lloyd
#150 Children of Another God

My started third 75 :)

#151 The Onion Girl - Charles de Lint
#152 The Twelve - Justin Cronin
#153 World War Z - Max Brooks
#154 The Giver - Lois Lowry
#155 Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry
#156 The Messenger - Lois Lowry
#157 Son - Lois Lowry
#158 Autumn - David Moody

I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan - Abandoned

Currently Reading:



The Gift of Rain - Tan Twan Eng



The Straight Razor Cure - Daniel Polansky



The Perfect Heresy - Stephen O'Shea

Hi Bianca - hope I'm not too early to your new thread:)

Hope you are having a great week.

I want to be in that cabin for Christmas!

A bluish white christmas, surreally stunning opening shot Bianca. Congratulations on your new thread.

Bianca- Lovely new thread. Like the cabin in the snow, reminds me of The Snow Child. I like looking at pictures of snow but I hate walking in it.
I also read Autumn awhile back. My problem with it, was there was not much pay-off. A lot of waiting, waiting and then it ended. I have the next 2 books in the stacks too but not sure I'll get to them.

Hi, Bianca. Nice new thread!

Hello calm, Nathalie, Paul, Mark and Nina welcome to my new thread and please make yourselfs comfortable :)

Mark I can understand what you mean. There was a lot of waiting and nothing much happened at the beginning. Apparently the other ones in the series are much better. However, the story intruiged me enough that I will eventually have a look at the other ones as well.

Hi Bianca! Nice review of Son! I'm eager to read it since it's the last book in what might stop at a quartet. ;) It sounds like she might HAVE to stop at this point, because people aren't liking it as much as the rest of the series.

Lovely new picture, Bianca!

The Straight Razor Cure links over to Low Town, so I'm assuming the publisher changed the title across markets. Either way, it immediately went on my TBR!

Hi Bianca! Comfy new thread and pretty entry picture! :) Hope I can keep up with the pace of your new thread this time. :)

Hi, How is the Rape of Nanking going for you? I fear it waould be far too traumatising for me to read. But The Gift of Rain? That I could handle! I hope you are liking it.

Happy new last thread!

You have a lot of great looking books on the go at present. So glad that you are enjoying Perdido Street Station, I had a couple of very late night reading sessions when I was on holiday last year as I couldn't put it down.

Happy New Thread, Bianca!
I missed out on the discussion on your last thread, but I wanted to say congrats to your sister on weathering GB, and that she looks beautiful in that picture! I have a good friend who also suffered through GB and came out a stronger person on the other side, having to learn all those motor skills all over again after months of being completely paralyzed.
I've only read The Giver, but from your descriptions, and from what others have said, I think I may just leave it at that. I really liked The Giver, and although it leaves me with questions, sometimes that's better than reading on and being disappointed.

Lovely new thread here, Bianca!

Hi Bianca

I love your opening photo!

What great books you have read in 2012!

And, I'm ever so glad you are a part of the 75 challenge group.

Hi Biana, that's a beautiful opening picture. I can hardly wait to hear about all your current reads, I have only read Perdido Street Station and I loved it. The others you are reading are all on my wishlist or about to be added.

Hi Bianca, stopping by to check out your new thread and to find a comfy corner to settle into. I read Perdido last year as my intro to Mieville. Looking forward to your comments on it!

Hi Rachel although Son was an enjoyable read, I don't think that book was necessary. I read that a lot of people felt that this is the conclusion to the series, but I didn't think that it was a conclusion. However, all of these books easily could be stand alone novels as there are only loosely tied to each other. And yes, out of all of them The Giver was definately best :)

Thank you Rhian :)

Hello drjimmyneutron :) you are right with the title, there seems to be different titles between the UK and the US editions. So far a very enjoyable, but dark read :)

Hello Kathy welcome to my new thread :). Don't worry, my thread always seems to move in spurts :).

Thank you Megan Yes, The Rape of Nanking is quite a traumatising read, but at the same time it is very interesting. I think The Gift of Rain would be a book you would enjoy :)

Hi Kerry I indeed very much enjoy Perdido Street Station, unfortunately didn't have that much time to listen to it. However, as I am going back to London tomorrow I will be able to listen to it on the journey. I just past the part where the caterpillar turned into this giant ?moth and freed his family members and Isaak tries to find out what kind of caterpilar this was? The German edition is called "Der Falter" which translates "The moth" so I am wondering whether this is the reason for the German title?

Hi Amber that's excactly what happened to my sister. She has come out of this illness as a much stronger person, who values life much more than she ever did. I remember how excited we were for every little thing she was able to do. First she could only blink, than she was able to move her head. I remember the day she was able to swallow again (she had a tracheostomy, so you can eat and drink) and she was allowed to drink a little bit. We used an ABC chart to find out what she wants and she showed us that she wanted "Fanta". I almost cried, raced to the shop to get her a couple of cans of Fanta and the whole family was beaming at her. *smile*

The Giver was definately the best one. Number two and three are very good reads as well, but in a different way and number four was ok.

Thank you roni please make yourself comfortable :)

Hello Linda thank you very much :)

Thank you Judy so far I enjoy Perdido Street Station very much :) However, I liked the other ones I read as well. So far Embassytown was my favourite.

Lori :) be welcome to make yourself comfy here. I am glad to hear that you liked Perdido Street Station so far I think it is a very good read. Did you read anything else by him as well?

................................................................................

Tomorrow I am off to London again. I still have to do some packing and preparations today, but this time I will stay only four weeks and will be back for christmas. I will return to Germany on the 21. December and will be accompanied by one of my friends and her husband. The will stay for 3 days in a hotel nearby. Unfortunately, we don't have enough space in our small house to lodge them for the time. We are planning to go to one of our medieval christmas markets nearby during their visit and I am very much looking forward to it. :)

I have it on fairly good authority (the head librarian at my local library) that Lowry is working on another in the series, which will tell the story of the Old Man in The Giver. Now *that* one I would likely read...
Safe travels back to London!

I have read his short story collection Looking for Jake. Really good stuff, but you can OD if you read all of the stories back to back like I did. ;-) I will be joining the 2013 Group read for Un Lun Dun, but I hope to dive into another one of his books before then.

Have a good trip back to London!

Toasty new thread, Bianca! Looking forward to your thoughts on Perdido Street Station since I have that one waiting on my TBR mountain. My head boggles to think you are already on your THIRD set of 75 books. Way to go!! :)

Have fun in London, Bianca. Lovely new thread here, and I love the thread topper! Like Valerie, I am reeling that you are in your third set of 75!!

Oh I like that new picture very much. You have really done an amazing amount of good reading this year.

Hi Bianca! Hope you're having a lovely time in London!

Thank you for the travel wishes Amber. If there should be a story published about the old man in The Giver, then I would like to read that one as well. It would be interesting to know if it really made a difference that Jonas left all the memories behind and if that would have lead to changes in their society.

HI Lori Un Lun Dun is on my TBR pile as well. When I received it, I was quite surprised that it was such a chunkster, because it is ment to be a YA book. Actually, I may join the group read as well in the 13 category challenge. It's always much more fun to read a book with several people. I had a fairly good journey to London :). I only ended up in THREE traffic jams and I still made it in time to the ferry. Once there I was told that the ferries are delayed, because of the bad weather conditions :(. So, I still had to wait almost 1 1/2 hours for my ferry to arrive.

Valerie I am almost finished listening to Perdido Street Station and so far I really enjoy it. It's a book in typical Mieville fashion with lots of weird characters and interesting plots, also here they are not as confusing as in Kraken ;).

HI mamie yes, I am already on my third set of 75, also my reading slowed down drastically since I joined this group. *smile*

Thank you Lucy :) yep, so far I had some good books this year intermingled with quite a bit of fluff for my stressed brain cells.

HI Laura how are you? I hope this time in London will be better than the last. I still would like to do some last minute christmas shoppings :) Apparently, we are to expect the "Big Freeze" here from next week. The coldest winter in a 100 years.

..................................................................

My journey to London was ok and yesterday I just used the time to go shopping and sort myself out. I also prepared a traditonal German meal for Rossella (my flatmate) and myself in the evening and she very much enjoyed it :) I made a Sauerkraut stew with Mettwürstchen (there doesn't seem to exist an English translation for them) with potatoes and beans. As a dessert I prepared apples filled with a marzipan, nut and cream filling which I baked and served with vanilla custard. I also brought her some traditional mulled wine from Germany and she just loved the dinner. Hehe

Although, I still find myself somewhat in a reading slump :(. You can see that at the amounts of books I am currently reading *sigh*. Usually, I read one non-fiction book, a fiction book on the side and I listen to one audobook. However, currently I find myself reading a little bit here and a little bit there, because nothing really holds my attention for long enough.
Nevermind, I still managed to read some books during November :)

Books read in November

♬ The Onion Girl - Charled de Lint
I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan Pearl Ruled
The Twelve - Justin Cronin
World War Z - Max Brooks
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry
Messenger - Lois Lowry
Son - Lois Lowry
Autumn - David Moody

My best reads this month were definately The Onion Girl and The Giver :)

Bianca- Glad you had a nice trip. Sorry, the November reading wasn't more productive. Nine is still not bad. I still plan on reading the Twelve later this month.

And here my book haul for November

01 Kain - Jose Saramago
02 The Monk - M.G. Lewis (free on amazon)
03 The Onion Girl - Charles de Lint (in addition to my audiobook) read
04 Promises to Keep - Charles de Lint
05 We Sinners - Hanna Pylväinen
06 The Twelve - Justin Cronin read
07 The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang - currently reading
08 World War Z - Max Brooks read
09 The Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber - PB and unabridged audiobook narrated by Jill Tanner
10 A Short History of Myth - Karen Armstrong
11 The Giver - Lois Lowry read
12 Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry read
13 Messenger - Lois Lowry read
14 Son - Lois Lowry read
15 Shanghai fern von Wo - Ursula Krechel
16 Herztier - Herta Müller
17 The Straight Razor Cure - Daniel Polansky - currently reading
18 Tomorrow the Killing - Daniel Polansky
19 Autumn - David Moody read
20 The Walking Dead Volume 5 - Robert Kirkman
21 The Walking Dead Volume 6 - Robert Kirkman
22 The Walking Dead Volume 7 - Robert Kirkman
23 The Walking Dead Volume 8 - Robert Kirkman
24 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (deckle edge edition)
25 The Picture of Dorian Grey - Oscar Wilde (deckle-edge edition) already my third edition of this book :) I couldn't resist the cover and the fact that it is a deckle-edge book.

HI Mark thank you for the nice wishes :). I am hopeful that my reading slump will pick up this month and as you said I still managed to read some stuff, even so I wasn't quite satisfied with it :)

Several Charles de Lint books on that list! I had the wonderful opportunity of hearing him speak at several panels at World Fantasy Convention last month. His wife was with him as well, and on several occasions they pulled out a guitar and serenaded the crowd. It was a little odd, but fun as well. I haven't read much of his work, but after hearing Mercedes Lackey say "if I could write half as well on a bad day as Charles de Lint does on a good day, I'd die a happy woman", I'm thinking I REALLY need to try more of his work!!!

Hi Bianca. Too late to comment on your last thread but also wanted to add my congratulations on the 2nd anniversary of the recovery of your sister. It was such a moving story - thank you for sharing it with us and I'm so pleased your sister has been able to make such good progress so far.

Nice book haul, Bianca! I hope that December is a better reading month for both of us.

I'd consider nine books read in a month really good going! Have a nice weekend Bianca.

Nice book haul! It reminds me that I meant to say that I really appreciated your reviews of the books that follow in sequence to The Giver - I don't plan on reading them as I very much liked how The Giver ended, and I don't want to mess with that. However, it was nice to see where Lowry went with the series, so thanks for that. I also enjoyed seeing the photo of your sister that you shared - she looks a lot like you, I think!

Great book haul! I'm really curious what you'll think about The Walking Dead Volume 5. I've read the first four volumes so far and I liked them. But now, I'm not so sure, if I want to continue that series. Carl always got on my nerves and I don't really care about his destiny.

Nine books are really not bad at all - I only read seven books in November.
So, let us both work on increasing our reads in December! :)

Wow - now that is a book haul, Bianca..... Nice! The dinner you prepared for your flatmate sounds divine.... now I am hungry, and I have only just started the food prep for dinner, which won't be ready for 1.5 hours.

Hi Bianca, I agree with Lori above, that dinner sounds wonderful. I am a big fan of The Walking Dead both the graphic novels and the TV show. I need to order Volumes 15 and 16 from the library and I think perhaps there is even a Vol 17 as well.

Hi Bianca, I'm finally caught up on your thread and going back to your last thread I wanted to tell you how happy I am that your sister is continuing her recovery. That is quite a story and I could tell from your telling it how grateful you are that she is doing so well.

Great book haul!

Hi Bianca - hope work is going well.

Very nice book haul for November:)

Your book 'slump' of nine probably matches my best in a month :0)

The dinner sounds *amazing*! I'll be right over for the leftovers...

Your dinner sounds just right for the cooler temperatures. I hope you've finally found something to kick your book slump. Have you read Laini Taylor? I'm about to start the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone which might appeal as you like paranormal though this doesn't quite fit the genre.

Hello everyone, looks like I have some catching up to do on my own thread :)

Hello Faith and welcome to my thread :) I have only read this ONE book by Charles de Lint so far, which I really enjoyed. Hence, I had to get some other books of him, which I hopefully will be able to read soon.

Heather, it is never too late to comment on something nice like that. Especially, as we are all very happy that things turned out so positive for my sister.

Thank you Darryl :) I hope so as well. I feel terrible at the moment. I constantly start a new book - and it's not that I don't find them interesting enough - and then after some time I put it away and find it difficult to take the story up again *sigh*

Rhian:), 8 books, as I abandoned one. You are probably right about that, but most of the ones I did read were really tiny books with less then 250 pages *nod head* .

Hi Mamie glad you find my reviews for the Giver Quartett useful. Although, I did enjoy the sequels in a different way. Yes, I managed a great book haul this month hehe. I think my sister will be very pleased to hear that you think she looks like me. She was very happy to hear that soo many people here reacted in such a positive and friendly manner. :)

Hehe Kathy yes, let's go for it the last month of the year :) . So far, I only have read the first three volumes of the Walking Dead, which I found quite entertaining. I wouldn't say they are brilliant, but they are definately enjoyable. I mainly got them, because my son is reading them and I had to check them out, before he was allowed to read them hehe :)

Lori, *gulp*, *starting to sweat* ..... you COOK dinners which take 1.5 hours? Hardly, ever. Unless.... they sort of cook themselves *grin*. NOW, I am curious what fab food YOU have been cooking :).

Thank you Judy :). Yep, I do enjoy The Walking Dead graphic novels as well and I am absolutely hooked on the TV-series. According to my son volume 17 is out already and I should by them a little bit faster :).

Thank you very much brenzi and you are quite right :), we are very grateful that my sister has done so well. I know other cases which didn't turn out so well :( , which was very, very sad for the families.

Calm :) Thank you. Did you notice the book by Karen Armstrong? I just saw on your thread that you just read that one and thought it was a good read :)

Ahem Nina, now you make me blush *blush*, I know I have finished quite a few books, but most of them were very, very short books :)

Oh Amber they didn't leave any "leftovers" - I actually made a bit more - hoping that I would not need to cook the next day. Well, that didn't happen, because they finished every little bit of what I had cooked. *grin*

That book sounds great Kerry. I actually just got that one from my flatmate. She got that ages ago from a publisher - never read it - and now gave it with some other ones to me. :)

...............................................................

I almost finished three shifts now and this time work is actually really good. Aside from the normal business of an intensive care unit it is really nice. So, far nothing mad has happened - lovely parents for a change. Although, that's not true - I felt like punching one mum last night *sorry* but she was extremely naughty and very arrogant on top of that.

Ok, my break is finished in a short time :) So, off I go snooping around some of the other threads.

Just dropping in to check up on what you've been doing, Bianca. Wie geht es Ihnen?

*smile* Hello roni - Sehr gut, Danke! Und wie geht es Ihnen/Dir?

Nothing much happening at present, aside from working/sleeping/working and so on. However, at least it is not as mad as the last time I was here *grin*.

No leftovers? I can't think of a better compliment for you cooking.
And I suspect that witnessing bad parenting had got to be one of the harder aspects of your job - here's hoping that stays to a minimum this time around.

Glad to see your first three shifts have been of the normal variety, Bianca. Here is hoping your future shifts are just as manageable!

As for me cooking for 1.5 hours - no, some of that is the food taking care of itself! I love oven roasted potatoes with a little olive oil, paprika, rosemary and some packaged non-salt seasoning but they do take longer than the accompanying food items! For that particular dinner, the potatoes were accompanying coconut encrusted tilapia fillets and steamed mixed veggies.

Just want to say Hi and 'Schönen Nachmittag' and wish you a happy December reading!
And your dinner sounds lovely. I'm not a fan of sauerkraut, but I love Mettwürstchen when cooked with the kraut. We always have to eat sauerkraut on New Year's Day, to make sure we'll always have money in our wallets throughout the new year.

All this talk of German cooking makes me want to visit the one authentic German restaurant we have in town. I'm a big fan of Weinerschnitzel! Not so much of sauerkraut unless it's on a Reuben sandwich. Sounds like a good way to start the new year!

I hope work continues in the same smooth vein for you, Bianca. Stay warm next week. We're still waiting for winter here in the heartland of America.

Bianca, I thought you might be interested to know today's Word of the Day on dictionary.com:
erinaceuous: adjective, of the hedgehog kind or family.

:)

Hi Bianca! You asked me a while back for some suggestions for the social justice theme read in February. I found this nice list on Goodread, you might try it out.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/851.Social_Justice_Books_on_Racism_Sexism_and...

The group reads I'm planning on my blog are for To Kill a Mockingbird and Noughts & Crosses, though I don't know how many people will join me. :)

Ich gehe gut, danke! And that's about as far as I can go!

What are you reading?

Bianca - Stopping by to wish you an erinaceously good weekend.

Hello everyone :) Thank you for stopping by and keeping my thread nice and cosy. Unfortunately, I have been very busy over the past two weeks with working, studying and preparations for various training days.
So, I got no pleasure reading done - I probably could have - but I still feel sort off reading :(.
Although, I finished listening to Perdido Street Station which I very much enjoyed. Most of my other books I started I put on hold for now. Exept for The Rape of Nanking which I almost finished.
As mentioned before, I have got very mixed feelings about this book. On one side I think it is a very powerfully written book, which describes the terrible atrocities committed by the Japanese very well, and on the other hand the author annoys me a lot.

Aaargh, my break is finished in a few minutes. I will come back later to answer all of your posts :)

Hello Bianca.

Is it cold where you are? My partner misses Europe and living in Germany. He often states that he wishes he would have stayed there instead of returning to the states.

Hi Bianca, I'm glad that you enjoyed Perdido Street Station. I read it a couple of months ago and loved it as well. I'm looking forward to reading more by China Mieville.

*wave*
I would really love to hear more about how you made the apples with marzipan, etc. Sounds wunderbar.

Hi Bianca, really glad that you enjoyed Perdido Street Station, I have put Embassytown at the top of my tbr pile for January.

Dropping by to hope you are, like me, no longer too snowed under now and looking forward to a great weekend. x

This sounds like a very busy time for you, Bianca. Will your schedule let up when it gets closer to Christmas? I also had many mixed emotions when I read The Rape of Nanking. I'll be watching for your comments when you finish it

Hi Bianca, why haven't I posted here before? You must have been locking the doors every time I thought about visiting or something, sheesh. ;)

I was a big fan of Perdido Street Station when I read it a year or 2 ago. I vowed to read more of his work because of how great it was, but then I...ummmmm, didn't. I'll try to get around to it soon, though. Maybe...

Bianca, wie geht's?

Stephen! Bianca comments on your thread all the time! Where are your manners? *crosses arms, taps foot, and gives the death-glare*

How disrespectful it would be, to post on someone's thread for no other reason than the fact that they posted on our. Perhaps, in our compulsively structured society such a thing would be called 'polite,' but surely we book readers with our liberated minds can see such mechanical pleasantries are nothing short of demeaning and really just plain silly. I was being nice by waiting so long, obviously. :P

Just stopping by for a quick hello, and now that I'm here, I also want to leave a "Hope you're doing okay", since it seems like it's been awhile since you've posted here. Hope to see you again soon!

I'm enjoying your thoughts on The Rape of Nanking. I'm currently working my way through The Woman Who Could Not Forget by Iris Chang's mother, Ying-Ying Chang, who, incidentally, was a research biochemist. At times, it seems like a chatty Christmas card full of mostly irrelevant details about the family. RoN is published about halfway through the book. According to Chang, the first draft of the book was rejected as being too clinical and not emotional enough. It took several rewrites before the publisher thought it had enough passion to appeal to the general public. Cynical me, I have to wonder if this truly happened this way or if her memory has been 'spun' in response to the criticism of her daughter's emotional treatment of the book.

I have to wonder if this truly happened this way or if her memory has been 'spun' in response to the criticism of her daughter's emotional treatment of the book.

It would be impossible to avoid that trap, I think.

Very quiet on this thread recently. Hope you're OK Bianca?

Hope your weekend is going well and that your absence is due to an abundance of Christmas good cheer elsewhere. Happy Christmas.

Happy Holidays, Bianca! We miss you. See you when things settle down.

Hi Bianca - Stopping by to wish you and your family all the best this holiday season and in 2013!

Happy Holidays to you and yours Bianca.


glitter-graphics.com

Frohe Weihnachten Bianca!

Guten Abend, Bianca! I hope everything is fine and the final days before Christmas weren't too busy! I wish you a happy, happy Christmas! Genieß einen ruhigen Abend und hoffentlich hast du ein braves Christkind! I'm already curious if there'll be some book-related presents under your tree. :)

Happy Christmas Bianca!

Have a Merry Christmas, Bianca.

Glitterfy.com - Christmas Glitter Graphics

I want to wish you a glorious celebration of that time of year when we all try to unite around a desire for Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward All. Merry Christmas, Bianca!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Bianca. Thanks for supporting me on my reading journey in 2012. I couldn't have done it without you. By the way, if that cabin at the top of your thread is yours I want to come and stay for the winter. Beautiful!!!

Fröhliche Weihnachten Bianca, und alles Gute fürs Neue Jahr!! Ich hoffe, dass Du eine wunderbare Zeit mit der Familie hast!

Merry Christmas, Bianca! I hope that I can meet you and Nathalie in London next year.

Oh mei, quite some catching up to do on my own thread! But first of all I would wish all of you on LT a wonderful, peaceful and magical Christmas!



Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

(Written by Norman W. Brooks)

I just ran in to check and am running out again to do some last minute food prep, but I think you might still be here, so I'm wishing you Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love today and all through 2013!
Peggy

Hello everyone, aside from being very busy at and around work, I was also very busy with lots of Christmas preparations.

I came back to Germany Friday afternoon with two of my friends who stayed with us until yesterday morning. We had such a great time together. On Saturday I took them to one of the medieval Christmas markets nearby, where we had lots of interesting food (well I almost needed to be roled home as I was filled to the brim with all this fab food). My friends husband got a bit tipsy, because he had hot met and tried quite a few of these hot beers they offered. Some of them just smelled awful - such as hot cherry beer *shudder*. After that I took them to a huge traditional Christmas market, ahem, where we indulged in another food binch. I don't think I have ever eaten soo much food as on Saturday. On Saturday we went hiking at a nearby nature reserver with a ? bog lake for almost 3 hours which was absolutely wonderful. As it started to rain cats and dogs I took them for a ride in my car along the lovely villages along the Rhine, where I live. AND now comes the best. My friend is Malaysian and she made a fantastic, mouthwatering, just fabulous Malaysian dinner for the whole family. We all were soooooo immensly awed. Alone the preperation time of all the food took almost three hours, also we all gave a helping hand with shopping veg and meats. It just was incredible.

Yesterday, we had a nice and quiet Christmas dinner with the family and in the evenning we opened our presents. Alex was as usually very excited, especially when he found that he got a kindle fire hd for christmas. In the evening, to late in the night we played board games where we all had a good laugh. The next two days are going to be quiet as well. GOOD!

I have only finished two books this month. Perdido Street Station which I thought was brilliant and The Rape of Nanking which was definately a powerful read, but which had some aspects I didn't enjoy at all.

....................................................................................................................................................

> 49 Yes Amber I couldn't believe it myself that there were NO leftovers, as I usually cook very generously (well, you know - with leftovers in mind). So I was very pleased that they enjoyed my German dinner so much *big smile*

> 50 When I read this For that particular dinner, the potatoes were accompanying coconut encrusted tilapia fillets and steamed mixed veggies. I started drooling Lori - I think I have to invite myself round for dinner at one point :)

> 51 Hi Nathalie I like the idea of this We always have to eat sauerkraut on New Year's Day, to make sure we'll always have money in our wallets throughout the new year. Does that saying come from somewhere? I definately have to suggest that to my mum :)

> 52 Hehe "Wei(ie)nerschnitzel"Donna :) something my family enjoys very much as well. I do eat the odd meals with some meat of fish, but I definately prefer vegetarian. What is a "Reuben sandwich"? :)

> 53 Thank you Laura indeed a very interesting word, put it straightaway in my little book for interesting words *smile*

> 54 Thank you for the link Rachel bookmarked it. I only reread To kill a Mockingbird last Year one of my all time favourites. However, I will check out Noughts and Crosses to see if it would be a book for me and I might join you on that one. :)

> 55 *big smile* to you Roni That's already plenty of German. I didn't read very much this month. I finished listening to Perdido Street Station and finished The Rape of Nanking with reviews to follow shortly. I am still reading Low Town and currently I am listening to The City of lost Souls. Whilst still in London I had to do a lot of work related reading and didn't feel like much other reading afterwards, instead I actually watched "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" on my kindle when I went to bed in the evening.

> 56 Hihihi Paul wish you a erinaceously Christmas and New Years time instead. I remember that you once said that you could be as prickely, so that word should fit. :)

> 58 Wave at Linda Nope I am from West Germany so our wheather is more tempered. Apparently we had a wonderful week with snow the second week of December, but since I have been back it has been more less dark and raining cats and dogs most of the time :( I am sure where you live is equally nice compared to Germany. Although, it is great to hear that Will enjoyed Germany so much *smile* AND if he would stayed he wouldn't have met such a lovely lady as you are *even bigger smile*.

> 59 Hi Judy great to hear that you enjoyed it as well. One of my next reads will be The Scar the next book in the bas-lag Universe. What else did you read by Mieville?

> 60 Oh, the apples are very easy to make Jenn I can pm you the recipe. You can put alcohol for the adults in it as well, but I don't like it *shudder*, so I usually it the kiddie version heheh.

> 61 Hi Kerry I hope you will enjoy Embassytown one of my fave reads this year. Although, be warned there are only small bursts of action to be found. Not to compare with a classical scifi story.

> 62 Thank you Paul NO snow in London during my time there and the "Big Freeze" was hilarious. Three days of - 3 degree LOL, otherwise mainly rain, rain and more singing in the rain.

> 63 Hi Donna :) thank you for asking after my work :). It was quite busy (as usual), but this time I was more busy with preparing myself for different study days I had to attend. So I spend a lot of time with my nose in topic relevant books. However, now I am actually at home for two month as I worked so much over the past 4 month *grin*. So, there will be a bit more "mother and son" time and reading time ahaed of me :).
My review of The Rape of Nanking will come shortly :) What, I can say is that I found it difficult at times to overlook the authors emotional involvement and that I found some of the assumptions she made very naiv and I had the feeling she had not done enough backround reading. I actually, started some backround reading whilst reading the book just to clarify some of the points she made and I definately can understand her upsets in regards of this incident. Well, I still have to ponder a bit about what I want to moan about. *grin*

> 64 STEPHEN? How nice to see you in my cosy corner of LT *big smile*. Well, I definately didn't lock the door. Maybe your shy self needed to get accustomed to me first? However, you will alway be welcome in my little LT home. Great to hear that you also enjoyed Perdido Street Station. Mieville is definately worth reading. I read already a few of his other books which I also enjoyed a lot.

> 65 Hallo Nina mir geht es gut *smile*. At least since I am back home again, so that I can spend time with my "not to small anymore" little fellow.

> 66 " death glare" Rachel? I think I would love to see that. LOL All the photos of you I have seen so far show you smiling or laughing.

> 67 Of course you were nice by waiting so long Stephen and actually I agree with you. I don't always post on other people's thread, because they posted on mine. However, but I usually take the opportunity to lurk on their threads and post if I would like to contribute something. *smile*. But I do hope that you will carry on visiting me.

> 68 Thank you Amber I have been very busy whilst in London, but now I am back home :)

> 69 Hello Janet finally managed to finish The Rape of Nanking and I will be very curios to read your review and on your final thoughts on Iris Chang's mothers book.

> 70 Agree with you Rachel!

> 71 Hello Rhian Thank you! I am ok. Was just very busy whilst in London, didn't have much time for anything.

Hello Paul, Mark, Lori, calm, cushla, Kathy, Rhian, Judy, Roni, Velma, Nathalie, Darryl and Lizzie *very big smile and a wave* to all of you. Thank you soo much for all your nice Christmas greetings and I sincerly hope that all of you will have a great and magical Christmas.

Hej Bianca, found your thread now, too, Gesegnete Weihnachten und ein gutes neues Jahr!

Hello Paul, the same to you as well *big smile* enjoy!

I think I just made my son the happiest boy in the world as I told him that we MAY will go to Bejing for two weeks during the Easter holliday. He is usually extremely chatty and I sometimes need to prescribe "quiet time" hehe, but today he was speechless for at least 3 minutes. Well, after he was over the shock message (positive shock) he beamed at me and started laughing and clapping his hands in excitment. He absolutely cracked me up, because the first thing he said was "Mum imagine all the Chinese food we can have every day". Well, currently he is on the computer to check out the best places for food in Bejing (definately very important to a growing 13 year old) and after that he will collect all the information for the best places to go *grin*.

Merry Christmas, Bianca! Hope it was full of fabulous things!

i hope you had a nice day, Bianca! I'm afraid I'm here to stay, so you better bust out the disinfectant. :P

90> That sounds like an interesting outing to Beijng - with your son leading the way to best places to eat! I hope he will not be too disappointed when he'll realize that Chinese food tastes different wherever you eat it (in London it tastes differently than here in Basel or in Seoul). They adapt their seasoning and ingredients to their host countries. But he is doing good work in being prepared for the food part over there. Enjoy your "quiet time".

Can you find the shark, the gray cat and the tan cat too?

Hope you had a merry day. The dinner sounds so wonderful.

Merry Christmas, Bianca!

Looking forward to following your new thread(s) in the new year! (I'm lurking but refusing to post on the 2013 threads until it's in fact 2013...)

I'm not even reading the 2013 group yet. It's making my life much less stressful than previous years. :)

Belated Christmas greetings to you, Bianca! It sounds like you had a wonderful time with family and friends (and too much food) - all as it should be!

Your Christmas sounds quite wonderful, Bianca. My oldest granddaughter loves board games which makes me happy because to me they are so much more fun than playing on a computer. Unfortunately, her current favorite is Monopoly. Not one I care about since it promotes greed...not a good message this time of the year. ;-) I liked the message in your Christmas poem much better!

Btw, a Reuben sandwich consists of corned beef, Swiss cheese, and sauerkraut on rye bread. Yummmm!

Just checking in over here, Bianca. Hope you are having a lovely weekend!

ditto what Mamie said.

I'm another ditto. Hi, Bianca!

Hi Bianca, your Malaysian Christmas dinner sounds fabulous and I'm loving hearing about all you adventures. It sounds like everyone's anxiously awaiting your review of The Rape of Nanking, a book that I own but may never read. Happy New Year if I don't get back here.

HI! Hope you're all well and that you had a great Christmas! Happy New Year - early. :)

Wow, looks like I have to do some catching up to do on my own thread again :) It has been a very busy time over the past few days, with visiting my grandmother and other stuff. Hopefully, from January things will become a bit more quiet again :)

Thank you mamie, cynara, Laura and Jenn for your lovely Christmas wishes. Christmas was wonderful, also the family was not complete this year. New Years Eve will be quiet this year as well as it is only going to be my parents, myself and my son:) However, we made already plans on which board games to play to pass the time and my son is mainly looking forward to the fireworks. Usually, all the neighbours come out into the road just before midnight with glasses of sparkling wine and all their different fireworks. I am sure it will be lots of fun.

Hi Stephen :) thanks we had a lovely quiet day, still lots and lots to eat, board games and just being lazy :). LOL - no desinfectant needed on my thread! Otherwise, I would be required to start desinfecting my scruffy self.

Paul thank you for the advice. I will let my son know, although I am sure it will not bother him too much. Wherever we go, which only has been within Europe so far, he is always very keen to taste all kind of food. By beginning of February I will know, whether we will indeed be able to go, which would be absolutely fantastic. I saw already that they have youth hostels in Bejing, which suits me just fine. Ich wünsche Dir und Deiner Familie ein fantastisches Neues Jahr!

*grin* hi Lucy found the shark and the tan cat straight away. The grey cat required my reading glasses, until I finally was able to spot her behind the tree.

Hi Amber I am also looking forward to follow your threads again in the New Year :). I have set up my little corner already, but refuse to go and have a look there now, until the first of January!

Wholeheartedly agree with you Stephen! I have also joined the 13 category challenge and I started already to worry how to keep up with two groups. I think I just have to see how that will work out, if I think it will be to stressful than I just leave the 13 category challenge. Actually, I was absolutely amazed how many people there planned their reading for the whole year and some were asking me already what my plans are. Sorry, but I don't plan my reads ahead, I have put POSSIBLE reads down from my TBR pile, but that is still open to how I feel.

Hi Donna I love board games as well and I have been brought up on them. My dad has got a huge collection of board games from the 1960's onwards. He has always looked well after all the games, which means we still can enjoy them today. I am lucky that Alex enjoys board games as well, he even turns of the computer when he hears we are going to play something. :)
Your Reuben sandwich sounds fabulous. We have got something similiar here, but we use smoked pork instead of corned beef.

Thank you mamie, Peggy and Linda Wave at all of you with a *big smile* on my face.

bonnie yes *smile* The Malaysian dinner was absolutely awsome and my friend promised me to send me the recipes. Although, I am not sure I can survive another 3 1/2 hours of preparations *blush* Unfortunately, I am quite lazy in that regard. My dinners have to be quick and tasty! Everything else, I enjoy at friends homes or restaurants :) .
The review of The Rape of Nanking will come today! At least I think so.

There is no way I could pre-plan my reading for an entire year. I never know what I'm going to be in the mood for, and I usually don't pick what I'll read next until I finish what I'm reading now. Sometimes I might have 2-3 books lined up, but usually I finish a book and then ask "What will I read now?" without having to refer to a list. :)

#159 Perdido Street Station - Bas-Lag book 01 - China Mieville - audiobook unabridged narrated by John Lee

Genre: Science Fiction - 880 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

“Art is something you choose to make... it's a bringing together of... of everything around you into something that makes you more human, more khepri, whatever. More of a person.”

What a wonderful book. Mieville has demonstrated again what a great storyteller he is, his vivid and imaginative descriptions of the characters and New Crobuzon made this book really enjoyable. This book was not an easy read (at least not for me) as I had to use the dictionary many times. However, that didn't distract from his brilliant storytelling. The story itself is not just about the characters, but about the city New Crobuzon itself. It's about the politics, the poverty, the criminals, the hard life, the survival but also about the beauty found in a huge city. It's about love and betrayal, about danger and corruption and so much more. Most of the characters in this story are flawed, selfish, careless and some of them are downright horrible, but that was excactly what I enjoyed so much about the story. Nothing seems to be as it is.

step into the vastness of New Crobuzon, this towering edifice of architecture and history, this complexitude of money and slum, this profane steam-powered god."

My fave character in this book was Yagharek the garuda. Punished for a despicable crime, by taking away his ability to fly. He comes to New Crobuzon to find someone who can help him to gain the ability of flight again. To observe his journey from a quiet and ashamed creature, obsessed only with his own predicament and then to turn into a friend and a hero - and in the end to turn into something completely new. Even so that his crime was horrible, I felt for this creature throughout the whole story. I especially liked the ending as it sort of was unexpected, but very fitting.

"I turn and walk into the city my home, not bird or garuda, not miserable crossbreed.
I turn and walk into my home, the city, a man.”

Highly recommended to anyone, who enjoys Mieville's complicated, but imaginative writing and who doesn't mind grabbing a dictionary at times for clarification of words.

Great review Bianca:) I liked that one as well.

I really liked Perdido Street Station too. I don't know why I haven't checked out more of Mieville's books, that's the only one I've read.

# 160 The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang

Genre: Non-Fiction, History - 304 pages
Rating: 2.5/5

Well, I actually had to ponder for quite some time on how to rate this book. In the end I settled for the lower grade as you can see.

“Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances.”

Iris Chang was definately right about that. This book is about the atrocities the Japanese committed during World War II against Chinese citizens of Nanking, during 1937 to 1938. Although, I do know quite a bit about World War II, this particular incident was not known to me. The book definately contained a powerful description of the events in Nanking. However, some of her graphic descriptions just became repetitive after some time. I am not denying that the whole incident wasn't horrible and shocking, but throughout the book Iris Chang came across as exeptional egocentric and somewhat naive about most of the other events during World War II.
Yes, I agree the Rape of Nanking isn't nearly as well known as some of the other events during that era, especially in comparison with the Holocaust and I agree that it is definately a piece of history which is worth knowing about more.
Nevertheless, some of the comparisons she made were downright ridicilous and sort of IMO not realistic. To be very honest, very often I just got annoyed. Why? Well, I try to give some examples.
Yes, the massacre of Nanking was absolutely awful, but what about the other approximately 19 millions of Chinese who died during WWII at the hands of Japanese soldiers? What I did learn during my history lessons in school was that the Japanese were known for their cruelties they applied, so does that mean that the rest of China's victims of WWII are not eqally important?
She mentions numerous times during the book that at least we Germans admitted to our crimes and that we didn't commit such atrocities. Hey, where has she been? I don't think she read enough about this time. Germany killed about 6 million Jewish people and approximately another 5 million people (soldiers and civilians) who didn't fit the German ideology at that time (gay, gipsies, disabled people etc.). I don't think that there ever was the question of denying what happened.
She also put a lot of emphasis on the fact that John Rabe, one of the people who helped to form the protected zone, maybe could have got help from Germany and if Hitler would have known about the atrocities committed, he maybe would have thought differently about the Japanese. She also mentioned that John Rabe was a good person, considering that he was a Nazi German. I am very sorry, but when I read this I had to LOL. John Rabe lived already for 30 years in China and didn't know a thing about what was happening in Germany, aside from the regular propaganda he received. However, at the end of the day he was only one man with no influenze at all and obviously once he went back to Germany and tried to inform the people of the atrocities which happened at Nanking, he got into trouble himself.
Well, I don't want to carry on rumbling, but IMO her emotional and very egocentric involvement with these events distracted a lot of what Iris Chang actually wanted to convey.
An accurate account of what happened at Nanking.

Bianca- Good reviews! Perdido Street, for some reason, ran out of gas in the last third of the book. Maybe it was just me, who knows! I still like his writing and his immense creativity. I keep hearing mixed signals on the Chang book. Might have to take a pass on that one. Hope you are having a nice weekend.

Yep Stephen same here. Sometimes, I have "planned" reading *giggle* and find I don't do it, because I planned it and than the books don't appeal to me anymore. Unfortunately, I definately have to work on my TBR pile next year, because it's become huge *shudder*.

Hi calm I am looking forward to read the other two in the series as well. Although, I heard they are more less just set in the same universe, but standalone stories :)

Stephen I only started to read Mieville this year and then I got completely hooked. My faves before this one were Embassytown a very quiet Science Fiction story and Kraken an Urban Fantasy story which leaves you afterwards with the feeling you just have been on a psychodelic trip, somehow :)

Thank you Mark the same to you and of course a very happy New Year! I actually thought the book was a little slow towards the middle and I absolutely enjoyed the unexpected gut-punching ending. In regards to the Chang book - I think if she would have been more focused on the history itself, without her egocentric involvement and somewhat naiv assumptions she made, this would have been a very good book, indeed.

I'm also going to try to work on my TBR pile next year--which is quickly growing from a mountain to a planet. I at least kept it in check this year with less acquisitions and more intention of reading books I already own. But I do want to be spontaneous, too and be able to join in group reads and interesting books.

Your review for Rape of Nanking has some interesting thoughts--thanks for sharing.

#161 The City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare - The Mortal Instruments book 05

Genre: YA, Urban Fantasy - 560 pages
Rating: 4/5

This was a nice wrap up for my 2012 reading :). Light, fluffy, entertaining, romance, adventure, bravery, courage all in one. Jace and Sebastian are bonded together - hurt one, hurt the other, kill one, kill the other. That's what Clairy and her friends are facing. Sebastian plans to destroy the world by setting Demons against the Nephillim - can Clairy and her friends stop Sebastians plans and rescue Jace? Well, I am not going to spoil the story.

The City of Lost Souls is the fith installment in the Mortal Instrument series and although, I enjoyed all of them so far, this one is definately my fave. Cassandra Clare managed to create many characters in the series which are very likeable and fun to follow around to see what's happening to them. It's one of those typical YA stories where everyone has to have a smoochy partner and there are several couples hooked up now *grin*. My fave couple are Alec the Shadowhunter and Magnus the Warlock, actually Magnus is one of my faves characters anyway as I enjoy his dry wit. Claire is still so focused on Jace that sometimes you just feel you want to hit her with a sledge hammer on the head, because she is sulking so much. However, this was another great adventure to read with a pretty good ending - no cliffhanger - and you know another one will come. Anyone, who needs something light, fluffy and hilarious - go for this one :)

Currently, I am listening and reading to Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson which is so far absolutely brilliant. Again another good storyteller. This is one his two standalone novels.

Thank you Stephen for the end-of-year book title theme :) The answers are books I have read this year.

Describe yourself The Onion Girl

Describe where you currently live Hard-Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World

If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Dark Haven

Your favorite form of transportation? Kraken

Your best friend is? The Kite Runner

What's the weather like? Stardust

You fear? Anansi Boys

What's the best advice you have to give? Naked Chocolate: The Astounding Truth About The World's Greatest Food

Thought for the day :) Never let me go

How I would like to die? Archangel's Blade

My soul's present condition On the Prowl

*Pheew* I didn't think this would be so difficult to find matching titles from 161 read books. Well, here I am :)

I loved your answers to the meme, Bianca. I'll post mine later today. I had such fun going through my titles to find the best response. LOL, I had to look up "kraken" -- either sea monsters or black rum would provide interesting transportation!

Have a wonderful New Year as you travel back and forth from Germany to London...and read many good books along the way.

Once there was The Onion Girl living in her own Hard-boiled wonderland. She and her friend The Kite Runner were On the Prowl one day and decided to go to Dark Haven. So they saddled a Kraken. They swam through Stardust, attacked by the Anansi Boys. When they got Naked Chocolate run over them and her last thought was: Never let me go. But the Archangel's Blade just missed them. Then after 161 books she woke and realized it's only the end of 2012.

Hi Bianca, I love that meme. I'll try if I can find fitting answers from my 2012-pile. :) (Can I use any book title, or only the best-rated?)
Wish you a happy weekend!

HI Janet I have just checked your TBR pile, you have got slightly less then I do have. So we both can encourage next year each other to get on with them :) .
As I said before, if she would written the book more factual and more focused I think this could have been a very interesting account of what happened at Nanking. Next year I will read the diaries of John Rabe, to get a different impression on the topic.

*wave* at Donna thank you for your lovely wishes for 2013. The same to you as well.

Paul Thank you so much. THAT story is absolutely lovely *grin*

Hi Kathy as far as I undersood this meme you can use any book title, at least that is what I have done :)

Books read in December

Hm, this time round not much to offer

Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
The City of Lost Souls - Cassandra Clare

Well, I think this is my poorest reading month ever, but only two more days and a new fresh start into 2013!

Good to read your review of The Rape of Nanking. I agree with your assessment. :)

Bianca - Happy New year - I have really enjoyed your contributions this year and hope for much more of the same next year.

Happy New Year, Bianca! Looking forward to another great reading year!

Hi Bianca,
I wish you a happy New Year!
See you in 2013 - looking forward to your threads! :)

I wish you a good start of the new year - and a lot of good reads in 2013

Here's to a great new year ahead, Bianca!

A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year Bianca. Great review of PSS - I loved that when I read it a few years ago but have never got round to the later Bas-Lag books for some reason.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU! For all your kind Christmas and New Years wishes :)

From today you can find me under

drachenbraut23 starts an exciting New Year :)

Hi Bianca. I came here to see if I could find your new thread and I did! See you.

http://www.librarything.com/work/123856/edit/112695443

>129 drachenbraut23: now you confused me ... the picture shows 'March' by Geraldine Brooks and the link goes to The death of grass?

>19 DeltaQueen50:#https://www.librarything.com/topic/181413" rel="nofollow" target="_top">loop scarf