Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Faith's 2014 reads

What did you read in 2014? Post your list here and update it as you go along! (One thread per member, please.)
User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

July

Post by fljustice » Fri August 1st, 2014, 4:37 pm

28. Oscar Wilde by Frank Harris (trade pb, interesting bio from a contemporary of Wilde's)
29. Invisible Romans: Prostitutes, outlaws, slaves, gladiators, ordinary men and women that history forgot by Robert Knapp (HB, good research book)
30. Boudica: Iron Age Warrior Queen by Richard Hingley, Christina Unwin (trade pb, good research book)
31. A Model World and Other Stories by Michael Chabon (ebook, enjoyable collection of literary shorts)
32. Boudica: The British Revolt Against Rome Ad 60 by Graham Webster (trade pb, good research book, reread)
33. Boudica: A Groundbreaking Biography of the True Warrior Queen by Vanessa Collingridge (trade pb, good popular bio)
34. The Last Kingdom (The Warrior Chronicles/Saxon Stories #1) by Bernard Cornwell (ebook, solid adventure tale)



DNF:
1. Sex Lives of the Roman Emperors by Nigel Cawthorne (HB, trash written for cash)
2. The Romances of George Sand by Anna Faktorovich (ARC, would have been better as non-fiction)
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

August

Post by fljustice » Tue September 2nd, 2014, 5:54 pm

35. The Pale Horseman by Bernard Cornwell (ebook, #2 of Saxon series)
36. Dying for Rome: Lucretia's Tale (Short Tales of Ancient Rome #1) by Elisabeth Storrs (ebook, short novella, liked it, but liked the author's note better.)
37. The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin (tradepaperback, one of the best I've read this year)
38. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (ebook, a classic)
39. Roman Sports and Spectacles: A Sourcebook by Anne Mahoney (tradepaperback, useful resource book)
Last edited by fljustice on Wed October 1st, 2014, 2:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

September

Post by fljustice » Wed October 1st, 2014, 2:52 pm

40. The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut's Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt by Kara Cooney (ARC, good bio)
41. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (ebook, classic with abrupt ending)
42. Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times (The Midwife Trilogy #1) by Jennifer Worth (ebook, charming memoir)
43. Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse (The Midwife Trilogy #2)
by Jennifer Worth (ebook, ditto)
44. Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End (The Midwife Trilogy #3) by Jennifer Worth (ebook, ditto)
45. Vanessa and Her Sister: A Novel by Priya Parmar (ARC, beautifully written)
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

September

Post by fljustice » Sun November 2nd, 2014, 5:37 pm

46. Queen of the Conqueror: The Life of Matilda, Wife of William I by Tracy Borman (ebook, interesting bio)
47. Actium's Wake by Ralph Jackman (ARC)
48. The Origin by Irving Stone (PB, enjoyable read)
49. Strong Female Protagonist Book One by Brennan Lee Mulligan, Molly Ostertag (PB, fun collection of web comics)
Last edited by fljustice on Thu December 4th, 2014, 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: must have been tired--wrong post title and can't count
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

November

Post by fljustice » Thu December 4th, 2014, 5:51 pm

50. A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow (ARC, interesting biography)
51. Shinju (Sano Ichiro #1) by Laura Joh Rowland (ebook, started slow, but delivered at the end)
52. To Hold the Crown (Tudor Saga #1) by Jean Plaidy (ebook, see the past appeal, but found the writing dated)
53. The Midwife of Venice (Midwife series #1) by Roberta Rich (ebook, rushed writing, implausible plot twists)

Made my goal of 52 books a year a month early!
Last edited by fljustice on Thu December 4th, 2014, 6:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

Post by fljustice » Sun December 28th, 2014, 8:46 pm

54. The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams by Phyllis Lee Levin (ARC, NF, good addition to the Adams family canon)
55. Rodin's Lover: A Novel by Heather Webb (ARC, good story--more interesting than Vanessa's Sister)
56. Vader's Little Princess by Jeffrey Brown (hardcopy comic)
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

User avatar
fljustice
Bibliophile
Posts: 1995
Joined: March 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Contact:

End of 2014 summary

Post by fljustice » Sat January 3rd, 2015, 6:52 pm

Being a numbers geek (my favorite graduate courses were statistics) I always look for patterns in my reading--just for fun. Doing a quick look at my 2014 book reads (not counting magazines, blogs, etc.). I finished 56 books and didn't finish 2. My reads broke down:

Historical Fiction: 25 (45%)
Other fiction: 8 (14%)
Non-fiction: 23 (41%); 6 (23% of NF) were research for current writing projects

12 (21%) of those 56 were ARC's. One of those ended on my best of 2014, but most were only OK. One of my DNF was also an ARC.

27 (48%) of my reads were ebooks, which shows a steady increase over the three years I've had an ereader.

I bought very few new paper books this year (3) and received 6 as gifts. I read 12 (21%) books from my Mt. TBR. So a net reduction of 3--count 'em!--3 books from my paper Mt. TBR. :rolleyes: I don't have the heart to check on my virtual Mt. TBR--just added three this week.
Last edited by fljustice on Sat January 3rd, 2015, 6:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Faith L. Justice, Author Website
Image

Locked

Return to “Member Reading Logs - 2014”