Eager to trump myself with a larger number of books read this year, I’ve been reading as much as I can. I have reviewed several of these books – the reviews will be posted in due course. I’ve alphabetised by the authors’ first names and then book title except in the cases of series, the order of which isn’t difficult to figure out. The rest of the post (quotation information) ends directly after the short paragraph on Philippa Gregory’s book.

All the books listed are works of fiction.

Celia Rees: Sovay – More about the French Revolution than the life of a female Highwayman, and barely a chapter on the love reported on the cover, the book doesn’t really know which plot it wants to follow so instead puts three topics inside one binding and hopes for the best. It should have settled with aiming for average.

David Eddings: Pawn Of Prophecy (The Belgariad) – A young boy, a sorceress, the sorceress’ wolf-like father and the local blacksmith (who wasn’t invited, or was he…) pick up a burly bearded man, a thin clean-shaven spy, and a man who talks to horses (but is by no means a Doctor Dolittle), and set out to their first port of call in what will be a long journey here, there, back again, and back again again. Confused much? You will be. Slow and secretive (the information comes later in the series) but funny and a promising beginning to a drawn out saga.

David Eddings: Queen Of Sorcery (The Belgariad) – The already diverse bunch meet up with an assortment of people including a hapless bowman, a knight who speaks in thee and thy, and a spoilt princess, continuing their journey and meeting snake people.

David Eddings: Magician’s Gambit (The Belgariad) – Again more people join, again more road is travelled, and a major part of the story is resolved. You also meet a child called Errand, named appropriately because he only ever says “errand”. That word encompasses the meaning of every word, apparently.

David Eddings: Castle Of Wizardry (The Belgariad) – The only book in the series not to have a climax due to the build up for book five; the spoilt princess gets savvy and blushes a lot, and the main character gets sick of the story. He probably pleaded with the author to let him be a shop keeper in a Chick-Lit.

David Eddings: Enchanter’s End Game (The Belgariad) – The only book that has a serious problem, book five sadly makes little of the major event spoken about, only lending it a couple of pages. The afterword, however, is fantastic and it’s nice to know that although you’ve left the characters there’s a whole other series including them waiting in a bookshop near you.

Freya North: Love Rules – When Thea falls in love with Saul everything comes together, but when Alice marries Mark, because she wants a better relationship, everything looks bleak. Both women are just about happy with their lot but they could do with considering other possible notions than they do. Could life be different to what they think? Not your usual Chick-Lit, boring to begin with, busy by the end, and issue-addressing.

Jane Austen: Persuasion – A woman who turned down her lover’s proposal because of family pressure sees hope when he appears again eight years down the line, but does he still want her or is there someone else on his radar? Rather a lot different to Pride And Prejudice and quite dull, but it is well documented that Austen was dying at the time of writing.

Jane Austen: Pride And Prejudice – Two men enter the lives of a family of five girls causing havoc in the heart of one and belated havoc in the heart of another who takes them more at face value. A funny social commentary that really is as fabulous as proclaimed.

Paulo Coelho: Veronika Decides To Die – A young girl with a good life sees no difference in her future and decides to leave the world. She finds purpose and reason while in a hospital after her attempt fails – but has only a few days to live. Like Eleven Minutes it’s no The Alchemist but it has a good moral to tell and isn’t as daunting a read as it looks.

Philip Pullman: The Butterfly Tattoo – Chris meets Jenny when she gatecrashes an event at Oxford University; they begin a relationship, but all too soon they lose contact and fate will have it that they will never meet again until it’s too late. A good short story that doesn’t promise happiness and doesn’t provide it.

Philip Pullman: Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) – Lyra hides in the wardrobe and learns secrets about the universe no adult would wittingly have told her. Then her friend goes missing, and she plans to rescue him. What “The Gobblers” do to children is unknown but it’s wrong and Lyra sets out to find her friend and maybe even learn more about Dust and the city in the sky. Better when read at a young age, and not as good as the next in the series, but how can you say no to Iorek the big friendly bear?

Philippa Gregory: The Other Boleyn Girl – Mary Boleyn tells the story of her own rise to favour and then her sister’s, filling in the gaps with pages of weepy memories of the king’s first wife while playing down the Reformation. An utter disaster of a book full of assumptions and an overwhelming bias against facts and Anne Boleyn.

Are you glad that’s over? I am, to me writing short summaries is like a footballer spending an entire match on the substitute bench. I want to write more like the man wants to stretch his muscles for more than just goal celebrations.

The following are not spoilers.

If Silk of The Belgariad complains about the makeshift camp being too domestic don’t listen, he’s going to go and get some clothes that need repairing regardless. Belgarath may ask others why 2 and 2 makes 4 but when it comes down to it, he hasn’t a clue himself. And Garion will say that he hasn’t been peeking at the naked Ce’Nedra but when the second voice in his head tells him it’ll help confuse the evil god he’ll blush, and the voice reckons it’ll irritate the god as much as it irritates himself anyway, so it’s not all bad.

Elizabeth Bennet of Pride And Prejudice knows it’s probably not a good idea to go against your mother in 19th Century England, but if your father says that he will never speak to you again if you do marry Mr Collins, what option do you have? And speaking of mothers, Alice of Love Rules made a faux-pas by saying “bloody” in her mother-in-law’s presence; while Saul’s thinking that if he clicks on that dodgy-looking link he might get a sexually-transmitted computer virus. Lucky then that he knows the site is far from the one he’s looking for.

Personally it doesn’t take my fancy, but Lyra of His Dark Materials found a piece of seal-meat in her pocket, another’s coat it seems, and enjoyed it very much. And if David Eddings is anything to go by, the excitement to oneself caused by your characters suddenly making swift progress up a steep hill results in most words of a sentence ending in -ly.

And that’s it for this quarter.