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All 57 of them. Doubtless a few more I neglected to record. I regard reading as one of the fabulous joys of life, plus something essential to my growth as a writer. IMHO, a writer who doesn’t read ends up writing things which show that lack.
Major reads this year were: The Last Stormlord and Stormlord Rising…read them SOOOO many times
………..
………..…Conqueror’s Moon by Julian May
………..…Ironcrown Moon by Julian May
………….…Sorcerer’s Moon by Julian May
………….Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novak
………….Wizard Squared by K.E.Mills.
………….The Prodigal Mage by Karen Miller
………….Reluctant Mage by Karen Miller
………….The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
………….Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
………….Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
………….Thud by Terry Pratchett
I tried very, very hard this year to like urban fantasy with lots of zombies, kick-ass females, vampires and werewolves. (For a month, I stayed in a house that was full of the things from ceiling to floor, so I had plenty of opportunity to try the genre.) And not one of them grabbed me. These are the only two I managed to finish. I think the genre is just not for me – not the fault of the authors, it’s just me.
………….Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
………….Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews
………….The Turning Tide by Diana Pharoah Francis
………….The Skewed Throne by Joshua Palmatier………….
………….Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear
………….Shadowmarch by Tad Williams
………….Shadowplay by Tad Williams
………….The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
………….Shadow Gate by Kate Elliott
………….Before They are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
………….The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
………….The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
………….Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
………….The Winds of Darkover by Marion Zimmer Bradley
………….Sharra’s Exile by Marion Zimmer Bradley
………….
………….A Breath of Snow and Ice by Diana Gabaldon
………….Royal Exile by Fiona McIntosh
Didn’t read that much SF this year.
………….The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld
………….Air by Geoff Ryman
………….Code Noir by Marianne de Pierres
My favourite non-fantasy read of the year in bold.
………….Always Bells by Winifred Stegar
………….The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng
………….Little Hut of Leaping Fishes by Chiew-Siah Tei
………….Secret Scriptures Sebastian Barry
………….The Map of the Invisible World by Tash Aw
………….The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
………….Wandering Star by J.N.G. Le Clezio
………….The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakam
………….A Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
………….The Brief and Wondous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
………….Q&A by Vikas Swarup
………….Ethan Frome and selected stories by Edith Wharton
………….A Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
………….Love and Other Demons by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
………….World Without End by Ken Follett
………….A Mercy by Toni Morrison
Why, oh why do I persist in reading regency romance? No one comes anywhere near Heyer. Especially American authors, who just don’t get it. Sigh.
………….The Duke’s World by Edith Layton
………….Lord of Dishonour by Edith Layton
………….A Courtesan’s Scandal by Julia London
………….O is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton
………….N is for Noose by Sue Grafton
………….M is for Malice by Sue Grafton
………….The King of Torts by John Grisham
Every one of these was fascinating and memorable for different reasons:
………….Dreams from my Father by Barack Obama
………….No Way Home by Carlos Acosta
………….From Heaven Lake by Vikram Seth
………….Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien
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The proofs (also called galleys or first pages) are the last chance an author gets to alter anything. At this stage you are not expected to rewrite, but merely pounce on the typos or more egregious errors. They are delivered either on real paper, or as a pdf. They look like the untrimmed pages of the unbound book, usually with two pages side by side on the sheet, and the printing is exactly the size it will be in the real thing.
Remember while I was on Pangkor Island? Well, my husband at the time was taking these photos at his hotel in Abu Dhabi, where he was attending an international meeting as a speaker, sponsored by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the University of New York, Abu Dhabi campus.
Above: the various stages – from the lumpy handful of dough on the left, through the rising dough to the kneading to the cooking.
Above: Sprinkling sugar on the bananas of Grandson’s roti. It is then folded up…
Below: in the tray at the are some finished roti. Delicious when made 
Above: the ground floor of the shop in Jalan Maarof, Bangsar
Above: grandson contemplates the fountain
And yes, sometimes shops in Asia request you to take off your shoes.
A stroll along the beach – and this is the only hotel on this bay, so it is pretty much a private beach
On the sunset cruise we took (actually just a ride for our family in a small runabout) we passed by Pangkor Laut Island where I once did some bird work while staying in a luxury resort. (The Pavarotti suite runs to $US3000 a night I believe). Yep, sometimes being an environmentalist pays off. Ok, so they didn’t give us the Pavarotti suite, but believe me, the rest was pretty good too.
If you look carefully at the photo below you will see one of the benefits of leaving a nice forest cover – a sea eagle nest, zoomed in a bit closer in the next pix.
That white spot on the right of the nest is the sea-eagle on guard.
Back on the main island of Pangkor, some picnickers enjoy a private beach.
Above: Grandson in front of the wild hornbill feeding station at the hotel.
The Oriental Pied Hornbill at the feeding station. That pile of horrible white stuff? It’s white bread, possibly about the worst thing you could feed a hornbill. The other orange stuff is papaya. In the wild they are omnivorous – eating fruit, young birds, lizards, insects, etc. But not bread loaded with sugar and white flour. There were easily about 40 birds flying around at feeding time, just feet away from the guests.
Some of the hotel chalets. (Pangkor Island Beach Resort – great place. We stayed in the cheapest rooms, which was a great choice as they were also the quietest, being the furthest away from the swimming pool and night life.)