Frieda - The Siege of Krishnapur would be in the OK category for me. Nothing special, but not bad either. I've got a bit of a soft spot for it, though, as it was the last one I needed to get to complete my collection, so I was very pleased when I found a nice copy on ABE and the parcel arrived through the door. It's a while since I read The Sea, The Sea so I don't remember the particular scene that you mention - obviously it didn't strike me in the same way as it did you. Life of Pi is most certainly not a fantasy, and it doesn't have any talking animals. Part of the pleasure of the book is the unsentimental way that animals are treated. Here's my review of it from the RP review thread we did a few years ago. (I think I might try reviving that...) ================================================== This is one of the few times when a Booker Prize winner lives up to the type. I've rarely enjoyed a book so much. It's not a difficult read, but it's got enough in it to make anyone think. It's full of little twists, and some lovely touches of humour. It's the story of a sixteen-year-old boy called Pi (as in 3.14159 - you'll have to read the story to find out why!). He and his family are on a cargo ship on it's way to Canada, carrying several large zoo animals; the ship is shipwrecked, and Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with a zebra with a broken leg, a hyena, an orang-utan - and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Which makes for a bit of a tense atmosphere.... It really is one of those books where I envy anyone coming to it for the first time. I'm sure I'll read it again soon. Here's just a few extracts that particularly appealed to me. I hope they give a flavour of the book, without giving anything away. It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith, Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap. I'll be honest about it. It's not atheists that stick in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the Garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. I am not one to hold a prejudice against any animal, but it is a plain fact that the spotted hyena is not well served by it's appearance. It is ugly beyond redemption. He's petulant! It's morning in Bethany and God's hungry; God wants His breakfast. He comes to a fig tree. It's not the season for figs, so the tree has no figs. God is peeved. The Son mutters, "May you never bear fruit again," and instantly the fig tree withers. So says Matthew, backed up by Mark. My fellow castaway came into view. He raised himself on...

My favourite Books of 2011 - no particular order - 1) ""Get Me Out of Here" - Henry Sutton A dark -- very dark -- satire set in modern-day London.... Tells of a once-successful financial professional who's on the skids -- yet, still hankers for the luxuries and amenities so many of his ilk had during the '80s - early-2000s - until the global financial crash. 2) "Bleak House" - Charles Dickens My first reading of this classic. Like the above -- another tale of riches-to-rags -- for some characters, rags-to-riches. Teeming w/ delightful or creepy characters, high drama, ugly-beyond-belief slum scenes and human cruelty, enough neuroses to keep a psychiatric clinic busy for a decade (or more!), generosity of spirit, healthy lust for life, etc., etc. ... a rich cornucopia of humanity -- both wonderful and lousy. 3) "Left Early, Took My Dog" - Kate Atkinson Very "juicy" mystery involving a kidnapped spunky little girl and one of the most delightful female police detectives I've ever encountered. ... She reminded me of the actress Dawn French. 4) "King Solomon's Carpet" - Barbara Vine / Ruth Rendell One of the best books she's ever written ... even though I was annoyed w/ how meagre the explanation was at the end -- of a couple of the characters' outcomes. But, still, a fascinating ride -- in both senses! -- the story as well as the hair-raising subway ("Underground" in Brit speak) scenes. Some of the weirdest, most intriguing characters I've come across in a book in a long time! 5) "Bad Behavior" - Isabel Wolff A woman's storybook -- I call this genre -- some call it "Chick Lit", which turns me off. Anyway -- a lovely story about a young, single woman setting up a new veterinary practice in London. She has a very awful secret in her past. A war photojournalist comes into her life, and the secret if blown open. 6) "My Cousin Rachel" - Daphne du Maurier Several of us "chatted" about this in the August thread. I still think the dame did it! 7) "The Private Patient" - P.D. James A professional investigative TV journalist goes to a posh country clinic to have an old scar removed from her face. But much more than that happens to her. Really intriguing who-done-it... although I felt that bringing Dalgleish's personal life into the story interrupted the flow. That's it. This year think I'll read more non-fiction. After going over the lists of all the books I read - 2011 - I noticed I've been reading way too many mystery books! Some books keep popping up in the lists above and in discussion that I want to try -- "IQ84", "Discovery of Witches", "The Assassin's Cloak". Kathy9norcal - You named 2 of my all-time favourite books: 1) "Brazzaville Beach" - Wm. Boyd -- Every time I mention this novel I have the feeling I'm the only person who's read it, as no one seems to've heard of it! Although I've read some awfully good books set in Africa (fict. &...

Vee, I recall reading several of the novels on that Whitbread List that I think you read as well, because we had some discussions about them here at RP. Small Island -- Andrea Levy; Music & Silence -- Rose Tremain; and maybe The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time -- Mark Haddon I have also read several of the biographies, including Bad Blood by Lorna Sage, that I remember you commenting about. I notice that Vernon God Little by D B C Pierre (Peter Finlay) won both the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award in 2003. I thought it was tripe, the sort of satire/black comedy that appeals to those who think John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces is a masterpiece. I think Vernon might be the record holder for most curse words in a major prize winner and such descriptions as this: "Deputy Gurie tears a strip of meat from a bone; it flaps through her lips like a sh*t taken backwards." and lots more of the same caliber. [thanks to one of the reviewers at Goodreads for the quote -- he thinks it's "a gem"!] I haven't retained much of How to be both, but I'm sorry that I was unaware of your response to reading it until several months after you posted. You could have helped me greatly with the art part. I think I mostly read it wrong, so thanks to Martin and Sheri for setting me straight on some of my interpretations. Carolyn, the Poe story could have been "The Fall of the House of Usher" since incest is suggested there, too. But I think the incest in it is probably more obvious than in "The Tell-Tale Heart." I read the latter without grasping it at all, because at the time I was naïve and didn't even know that kind of incest existed. I don't remember it being mentioned, either, in any of my "Poe classes." Your mother was a better educator than the ones I had. Edit to add: I was on the right track about "jolly good reads." Thank you Annpan and Vee for verifying that. I share with you, Vee, a contentedness with reading DduM, Hill, and Franklin. :-)

I seem to be in a nonfiction mode these days. I've always read some but in the past it took a backseat to fiction. Recently it has been holding even. I read a novel, then a NF book, then another novel, and so on. I suspect this pattern is temporary, but I'm enjoying it right now. Driving in my car I have been listening to Chernow's biography of Hamilton, as I mentioned previously. At home I have been reading The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte. Both are fascinating. My next planned novels are The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (for February book club) and Paragon Hotel by Lindsay Faye, which I started then set aside to finish off some library books I wanted to return. Paragon Hotel in particular intrigues me. It is set in the Great Depression. The main character is a gangster's moll who escaped New York to avoid being killed and ended up in a segregated hotel in Seattle. There her presence is a serious risk to the other inhabitants. Lots of lovely reading awaits me!