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The Year In Books: November 2014

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I am woefully behind in this post!  All caught up in the NaBloPloMo that my regular stuff was pushed aside…

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In October, I inadvertently chose books for children/adolescents/young adults.  That’s all good as I don’t snub any style!  I was (am) a fan of the Harry Potter series and was not afraid to show it!

Dandelion, The Extraordinary Life of a Misfit, by Sheelagh Mawe  was a wonderful little book, directed at 10-13-year-olds on how to learn to love who you are.  It is told in the voice of a horse!  Quick read for an adult and had some words of wisdom that we are never too old to hear.

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger was an enjoyable read too.  This one, written in the voice of 14-year-old Holden Caulfield – a cynical, everyone sucks type of boy.  I wanted to read it because, well, everyone has read it!  I wanted to know what all the hoopla was about.  Well, if I had read it when I was 16, I would surely have had a different take on it than I do now at 50.  I cannot say I didn’t enjoy it, because I did.  I wonder how many times the word “damn” is used?  I could very easily imagine that a lot of what went on in Holden’s mind also goes through my boys’….

I actually finished my two books before the month of October ended.  Yes!  I actually did!  So I finally re-started the wonderful Timesmudger, by Gillian Smellie, a new FB friend and fellow-blogger who just so happens to have written this book that I very much enjoyed.

Let us just say that things never go smoothly when you time travel – there are always risks.  I didn’t see this one coming until the very end – and that’s a good thing!   Definitely worth a download even if it is in the teen/young adult category.

So now November is upon us and another book had to be chosen.  I was going nuts because I was positive I had a Maeve Binchy novel hanging around that I had yet to read.  Could not find it all!  Then went to my sister’s for Hallowe’en and lo and behold, there it was!  She had been looking for something to read at one time and I was in the midst of reading something else so I leant it to her.  Then forgot.  So…. yeah!  There is not a Maeve book that I’ve read that I haven’t completely fallen in love with.  She was (sadly, she is no longer with us) such a wonderful story teller.  Every single one of her novels take place at least partially in her beloved Ireland.  This one is no exception.

I am only a few pages in but just know that I will adore it.

11 thoughts on “The Year In Books: November 2014”

  1. I also love reading books that are aimed at kids/young adults. A few years ago I realised that I’d not done any reading for pleasure for a very long time so I started working my way through the BBC Book List from 2010 (I’ve still got a way to go with that!) and I re-read all the Harry Potter books and made sure I read the final ones before the last film(s) came out. I really like the sound of Dandelion so thanks for these recommendations. I’ll add them to my ever-increasing ‘to-read’ list :).

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    • Keeps us young at heart! Plus, we can discuss books with our kids (if they actually read, which is not the case of my boys, sadly). I am planning on re-reading the Harry Potters one day. Dandelion was truly a lovely, quick read! I leant it to my nieces – they are the perfect age!

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  3. Lovely to see a fellow Maeve Binchy fan. She was an incredibly kind lady as well as a good teller of stories – I wonder do you read them in her voice in your head? Don’t say it’s just me…. I have all her books, fiction and non-fiction, and all bar the very last ones have a personal note inside from her. We corresponded after a fashion…. I would always write to her when I had finished her latest book, tell her about my own writing, and she always sent a letter/note/card in reply, always encouraging too with regard to my own efforts. Sadly missed. Gordon, her husband, sent me a kind letter about a month or two after she died, which was incredibly kind of him.

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    • How lovely that you were able to exchange correspondence with her! Having never heard her speak, I cannot say I heard her voice when reading. That said, one imagines the Irish lilt in the voices of almost all her characters. I don’t have them all – yet! Very sad when I heard she had died… At least I have the books not yet read to look forward to.

      Thanks so much for stopping by, Edwina!

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  5. Well your not on your own I have not read the Catcher in the Rye either but it is on my stack of books to read in December as my return to school read. Sounds like I may enjoy this one. I’ve not read any Maeve Binchy but there is always a first time.

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  6. Pingback: The Year in Books – January, 2016 | A Delectable Life

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