How interesting! What kind of fertiliser is this Japanese stuff? Wonder what's in it. I wonder how she can water daily. Isn't it stange that some struggle with growing and yet others do everything that we would NEVER think to do and they get beauty! Great story! Clara Maria

cjoseph, Mine are thriftshop finds. I have one slim volume, an abridgement edited by Isabel Ely Lord covering 1660-69, which got me hooked. Later found an old slipcased edition entitled Vol. !! covering 1665-69, transcribed by Henry B. Wheatley, unabridged, published 1942. I know there are undoubtedly later and better transcriptions out there...I've just enjoyed these. So no, I haven't read the entire diary (I wasn't sure to be honest until you asked)...but I think I'll look for Vol.1 now that it's so easy to buy old books on the net. In my post I was just thinking of books I can pick up after an interval of months or even years and immediately settle into as if I'd been reading the night before...Pepys fits in there...josh

I finally finished this today. It starts slow and it is a veritable Greek tragedy of a tale, but I think it's worth reading for any LOTR fan who is interested in the tales of the First Age. I did have a hard time getting into it, but when I finally committed myself to finishing it, the book flew. The characters are not as fully developed, certainly, as those in LOTR, and I just couldn't connect with most of them. Turin is one tough main character. I was also perpetually trying to remember who was who, for he and many other people -- and even several places -- in the story had multiple and ever-changing names. (There is a detailed list of names at the back of the book.) At one point I didn't realize for a whole page that the character in the middle of the action was actually Turin, as he was using his fourth or fifth alias since the start of the story and I had just lost track. Definitely a lack on my part :) The introduction by Christopher Tolkien, the appendices, the genealogies, and the story of how The Children of Hurin was painstakingly put together from the elder Tolkien's notes, poems and unfinished drafts is also interesting reading. Finally, the illustrations by Alan Lee are just gorgeous. As I mentioned before, I have not read The Silmarillion, or the HOME books, but I'd bet fans of those would really love this and appreciate it on far more levels than I can. Personally, I didn't love it, but I'm glad I read it. It's not a book I'd want to purchase, but it was certainly worth the overdue library fine (Janalyn, IMHO, I'd go the library route first). I'll be very interested to hear what everyone else here thinks of it.

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. &...