My Thoughts: The Knife of Never Letting Go

Be warned this is a gushing post!!!!!


So, everyone in the blogging world has read this book except me. And everyone I know who reads will soon be badgered into reading it!
The Knife of Never Letting Go is set in an alternative world where women don't exist (or so he thinks) and where everyone can hear all of your thoughts and no secrets can be kept (or so he thinks). A month before his 13th birthday, the day he, the final boy, will becaome a 'man', he discovers his world is a lie. And he has to run for his life.

When I opened the first page and saw that there were words like 'thru' spelt in text language and the punctuation reminded me vividly of that of some of my kids at school I considered putting it aside. I'll just read the first chapter I said to myself. It didn't take a chapter for me to be gripped, by the bottom of the first page I was emersing myself in Todd's world. The punctuation ended up being a massive driving force. The lack of full stops, the pages with the disjointed sentences running down the page created a frantic pae to fit the frantic mood.

I accepted things which in other books would have made me sigh at the complete lack of reality. I read grimicing through the violence, the 'CRUNCH' I could hear in my head and see vividly in front of me, and boy did my stomach turn.

In short I was fully emersed in this world, and may have to go and buy the next book as 27 people are ahead of me in the library reservation queue!

You can read here a story set before The Knife of Never Letting Go starts, which Ness wrote when he was writer in residence for the Booktrust website

Read for Bart's YA Dystopian Challenge

My Thoughts: Secret Hour (Midnighters Series) by Scott Westerfeld

October 9th and I finished my first RIP III book, I'm so behind everyone else on this challenge. In my defense up until this week the weather here was summery and didn't feel autumnal, now in true English style it has rained and been grey and horrid every day, we haven't had a good crip autumn day yet.

The Secret Hour is my first Scott Westerfeld book, and I can't wait to read some more. I already have Uglies and Pretties from the library and Touching Darkness is reserved for me.
The Secret Hour is the first book in the Midnighters Series. The book is set in a tiny town in Oklahoma. Jessica Day is the new girl from the big city, the girl everyone wants to make friends wih because she is 'fresh meat' in a school whee everyone has known each other forever.

Jessica wakes up one night at midnight, her room is filled with an intense blue light, the moon filling the sky. What had awoken her was the sudden silence after a night of rainfall. She steps outside into a froxzen world, the raindrops just hang suspended in the air, as she walks through them those she touch fall to the ground. It sounds beautiful.

Her second night out in the midnight hour isn't quite as serene. Woken by a cat at the window he leads her outside and down the street where he quickly transforms into a panther out to attack her. On the run, Jess clambers up a metal wired fence, as the panther hits the wire it burns.

After this experience Jessica quickly finds out a few members of her school are also Midnighters, Rex, the Seer; Melanie, who can read thoughts; Dess the mathmatical genius (the number 13 and its multiples are lucky) and Jonathan who has the ability to fly during the midnight hour.

Now they just have to figure out what Jess' special charm is and why all the creepy beasts which live in the midnight hour are out to get her.

Others thoughts:
Parajunkee
Bart
If I missed your review of this book leave a URL in the comments section and I'll add it into the body of the text.

I love the idea of walking through a frozen rain, or finding a frozen thunder bolt or falling star. What would you do if you woke up in the frozen midnight hour?

My Thoughts: The Fire-Eaters by David Almond

Hello from a very grey and dreary England, a trip to the gym is planned later but the weather is making me want to curl up in my pjs with a hot chocolate and a book rather than practicing dog pose for an hour.

Last night I grabbed a book off the tbr which has been there for ages, I needed a kids book which wouldn't be too expensive to post to South Africa (for a bookcrossing book exchange)and which I could read fairly fast. The Fire-Eaters has been lurking around the house for a good year since I brought it from the library for 10p.

David Almond is famous for Skellig a book I read every year to the 11yr olds in my class, and every year fall in love with all over again. And this book by him is even better!

The Fire-Eaters is set in a small Northern village, in an area of deprivation. Bobby Burns Spends his days with his friends Joseph, a lad just wanting to finish school ad make some money as a builder and Ailsa. Ailsa, is a gorgeous character, her family sift coal from the sea and beach in order to make a living, and at the age of just 12 she has become their carer since her mother died.
Bobby on the other hand is off to grammar school, a place his parents have dreamed of for his as it will allow him to move up the social ladder. But grammar school means changing friends, being strapped and mixing with a wealthier bunch of boys.
Bobby also has to contend with his father's ill health and the constant news of nuclear testings by Russia and America's threat of going to war with the Russians.

Its one of those novels about life changes, growing up, understanding the world and being at peace with yourself. I haven't explained it very well, but it creates that feeling that you can only get from kids books. Its true, it reminds you that kids lifes aren't easy but also makes you yearn for that period of true friendships and sharedness which you have less time for as an adult.
A must read for kids book lovers.

Sunday Salon: Travelling from the Sofa

Africa - Sudan
Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih

A young man returns to his village after many years and finds that a stranger has moved into town and managed to work his way into the tightly knit community who are normally wary of strangers. In this place where each persons heritage is known the stranger is a rarity, it isn't even known from which village he comes from.
When he finally meets the stranger he becomes obsessed, the stranger suddenly talks to him in well-spoken English,revealing at first a small part of his past.
The past is revealed in more detail when we discover that the stranger had been taken to court and held on the charge of murdering his own wife, and being the named cause of the suicide of many of English women. When the stranger suddenly disappears into the floods one night, feared dead, the obsession doesn't end it only becomes stronger.
Challenges:
999 (tbr + Arfican reads)
Orbis


Japan
Crossing Midnight by Mike Carey, Jim Fern and Mark Pennington
This fantastic graphic novel tells the story of twins Kai and Toshi. During the mothers pregnancy the father promised a sacrifice in payment for the birth of a healthy child. Unknown to him (and the doctors) his wife was expecting twins.
Boisterous children they quickly learn that Toshi is incapable of coming to harm through knifes and sharp objects. This knowledge leads her to be brave, disobedient and confident unlike her brother Kai.
One night Toshi wakes up to find a large man, surrounded by hovering knives leaning over her, he demands that she is his, the payment for the sacrifice her father made. When she refuses to go with him her dog is dismembered into tons of pieces. The creatures keep returning and the payments for refusal get higher, Kai ends up fighting to save the whole family from the instrusion of these mythical creatures.
This is my first violent graphic novel, I tend to stick to memoirs, and I really enjoyed it. At the back of the book the author writes about Japanese mythology and folklore which has made me want to discover more.
Challenges:
Graphic Novel
Japanese Literature Challenge
Orbis Terrarum


America (and the spiritual world)
A Certain Slant of Light by Laura Whitcomb

I picked up this book because the cover resembled the fantastic Siobhan Dowd novel
A Pure Swift Cry, I had no idea what the book was going to be about as the synopsis is written in a pale blue against a moss green background making it hard to read.
The ovel starts with Helen, a Light, a ghost trapped on earth. She is doomed to walk the earth following a host - a person she has chosen as a life line, if she moves away from this person she feels herself being pulled into hell.
Helen follows after Mr Brown, an English teacher and is always present in his life, unbeknown to him, until she realises that a pupil can see her. The pupil James, was also a light until he learnt how to inhabit the body of a dead soul.
The pair join up and quickly become tied to each other, they struggle with their own lives plus the lives of the host body they have come to inhabit.
I haven't done this justice at all, this is a great read - its intense, gripping and your pulled right into their world. (YA for older teens).
Challenges:
YA 2009
A-Z (Name)

My Thoughts: New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

I know... I'm way behind everyone else...

I read Twilight last year and loved it, going out and buying the next books all at once, but they kept getting put to the bottom of the pile as other books were bookrings, due back to the library or had to be read for challenges. I was in a bit of a reading slump this week so I grabbed New Moon as I knew the pace would pull me out.
In the second book, Bella is still madly in love with the Vegtarian Vampire Edward, but he forces him to leave her knowing his very existence was putting her in danger. Thinking he no longer loved her, she barely lives unable to pull herslf out of a deep depression.
Until, that is she starts hanging around with Jacob. With him she can laugh and almost be herself again. She also realises that putting herself in danger makes her feel alive again - alive because it brings back Edwards voice.
As with any good vampire story, a chase begins and there is blood and gore, but it's pretty tame in this one.

As with the first book I was immediately immersed in Bella's world. The dreamy language and the horrific pain of first love and loss clawed me in.
I will get to the next book in the next few weeks as I'd love to finish the series before I go back to school.

Challenges
2009 YA Book Challenge
Chunkster Challenge

Other YA reads worth checking out:
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Beauty by Robin McKinley
What I Was by Meg Rosoff

My Thoughts: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I finished listening to this audiobook late last night, the book is read by Mandy Siegfried who has the most fantstic voice I could listen to her reading the back of a cereal packet.
Speak is a YA novel, the main character is struggling in her new school as her old friends have all abandoned her. It is rumoured that she called the cops to a teenage party, noone knows the real reason she picked up the phone and dial 911.
At the new school she is largely abandoned, her grades fall and she starts playing traunt. She also falls out with her parents as they cannot understand the change that has come over their daughter.
Read it! Or better yet listen to it.

Challenges:
YA 2009

The Sunday Salon: Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd

One more week of school left before the holidays start - lets hope that this week my patience goes back up to its normal high level, the kids were made last week, swine flu arrived in school and the teachers were all on a short fuse.
This week I have to be observed teaching my weakest class, last week they became unbearable - they scwabble, answer back and cry at the slightest thing. I've also taught them all of the curriculum so have no idea what I will be teaching them in 13hours! Wednesday I'm off to a theme park with 300+ kids lets hope the weather improves!

I had a lazy afternoon finishing Siobhan Dowd's Bog Child, a book I was asked to read as the resisdent YA/Childrens book reader in the department - we're looking for new books to teach, I made my recommendations and then was given this to consider.
The Republic of Ireland is at a pinnacle moment in its history, bombs are going of and the political prisioners are on a hunger strike.
18 year old Fergus' brother is in prison on political charges, his mum is praying for his release and his safety, his Dad is busy drinking the town on the edge of the border is in turmoil as more and more of its young men are caught up in the troubles. Fergus has a lot going on, he is in the middle of his A Level exams and then while digging illegally on the other side of the border he discovers the Bog Child, Mel. Her body has been preserved by the marshy ground. Cora and her mother tun up to determine Mel's origins and the cause of her death and love errupts for Fergus.
I loved this novel, there does seem to be way too much going on in this boys life though, I'm not sure how he managess to stay sane. Alongside the story of Fergus Mel's voice creeps through into his sub-conscious and we discover more and more about her life.
This book just like Dowd's A Swift Pure Cry is well worth a read for both adults and teenagers.

Challenges:
YA 2009
Orbis Terrarum
999 (New Fiction)

My Thoughts: The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera

After saying yesterday that my reading had slowed down I polished of The Whale Rider in an hour last night. This kids book focuses on Maori New Zealanders, living between the traditions of their cultures and the fast paced world around them.
Kahu came into the world a girl, a fact that greatly disappointed her grandfather, he desired a male grandchild to keep the Maori language and beliefs alive with the new generations. Kahu, desperate for her grandfather's attention sneaks into the lessons he gives deliving cultural knowledge and langauge to the local boys. Despite being always under his feet her grandfather doesn't see the power Kahu inside her until fate intervenes and she is forced to act.
A great read for kids, made me want to learn more about the Maori culture
Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
999 (YA)
Young Adults 2009
Orbis Terrarum

The Sunday Salon: The Absolutely True Diaries of a Part-Time Indian by Alexie Sherman

If you haven't read it grab a copy! Or even better download the audio version!

This YA novel deals with some pretty tough issues: death, racism, alcoholism and even masturbation. You shouldn't let you put you off.
The narrator grows up with a dysfunctional family on an Indian Reservation, despite having brain damage as a child he is determined not to follow the same path as his parents so he travels 25 miles a day (often having to hitch-hike) to attend a better funded state school. His life is cmplicated by his race, what others see as the 'abandonment' of the 'rez and all the normal teenage boy/girl stuff.

The audio book is read by the author and is fantastically done, I was hooked immediately and loved every minute of it. Apparently the novel is has loads of cool pictures so I'll have to grab a copy to look at at some point.
I'll be searching out more of his books in the future.

Challenges:
YA 2009
999
My Year of reading dangerously (banned in Oregan)

A Graphic Novel Trio

y

Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Collen Doran
This really wasn't my cup of tea, way too sci-fi.
Venture, a space mission which went missing 10 years ago suddenly lands back on earth, one astronaut has survived the other 7 are missing. And the space ship is covered in a layer of skin!
Very random and full of science stuff that went straight over my head, I must have been suduced by the pretty colours on the cover when I picked this up because it was never going to be my thing.



Aya by Marguerite Abouet and Clement Oubrerie
Set on the Ivory Coast in the 1970's when the country was experiencing an economical boom: the city florished, education was of a high standard and life was a lot easier than it had ever been.
Aya is hardworking, she concentrates on school while her friends spend their evenings out partying trying to attract the next man. Despite Aya's warnings her friends meet their boyfriends in the 'night city' - the empty benches of the market. Parents are concerned with finding the best (richest) husband for their child.
Gorgeous illustations.

Read for Graphic Novel Challenge, YA, Olympic Challenege, Orbis Terrarum



The Wasteland by Martin Rowson
I was really concerned when I picked this up that this fella may do a disparity to my favorite poem. Luckily he stayed fairly well away from the poem.
The graphic novel is apparently based losely on TS Eliot's The Wasteland and Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep (which I haven't read). The story is about a cops hunt for his partner's murderer in the murky underground of the city.
It was okay, nothing to scream home about, odd character references and titles from the poem came into play but not in a big way.

My Thoughts: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

With just 5 days to go till the end of the Once Upon a Time Challenge I still have 2 books to read!!!! Life has been chaotic and I haven't been getting in my normal amount of reads, last week we had an open door week at school - any teacher can go and walk in and observe another teachers lesson (stressful), I had to organise and take 200 kids on a trip and write 26 reports on pupils in my form group (I see them for 15 mins a day and only teach 2 of them). Plus I uped the amount of time I'm spending at the gym.

I have the biggest book pile to tackle, the 6 weeks summer holiday is going to be a book a day mission to try and control the ever growing stack of books.

Over the weekend I finished Inkheart, and boy it was great.
Synopsis: Meggie is wokeon one night to find a strange man standing outside her bedroom window. Awakening her day he invites the man in and they go off for a private chat.
After that night Meggie's life makes a massive change, her and bookloving bookbinding father go off to an book obsessed aunt in the country. Meggie discovers her father can read characters out of a book, and he is hunted down and kidnapped by the very creatures he once read out of a book. And then the adventure begins...

What I liked: The fairy tale style, made me feel like a kid again. It also has a really positive approach to reading.

What I didn't like: It made my mental tbr pile grow, each chapter starts with a quote from another novel, it made me want to read Peter Pan again, The Princess Bride, and The Jungle Book. Seriously, I enjoyed it all.

Challenges:
Once Upon a Time
YA 2009
A-Z (Title)
999 (YA)

My Thoughts: Sabriel by Garth Nix (audio book)

Just spent the last hour and a half playing solitaire on the computer so I could finish listening to Sabriel on my ipod. This is only the second full audiobook I have managed to get through, but unlike the first this was no struggle.
I first picked this up in paperback a few years ago after a friend raved about it and I have to say I didn't get very far. So when I saw this was avaliable as a audio book I thought I'd give it one last try. And I'm so glad I did!

Sabriel, for those of you who do not already know, is an Abhorsen. Well, she suddenly finds herself to be when the previous Abhorsen, her father, is trapped in death.
She has to travel over the wall which protects the world from the Old World and go in search of a way to save her father's life. Once their she is greeted by many things, including a magical cat who once was an evil spirit and has been rendered a slave cat as both a punishmet and a method of control.
She also goes on to meet a handsome youngman trapped as a statue for 200 years who turns out to be King of the country. Romance blossoms. All fairly fairy tale like till this point.
The pace and tension speeds up as Sabriel has to find a way to fight the dark force which threatens to over both the old and new world.
A very dark and pacy novel meant for older teens I would assume 13+ As an audiobook, read by Tim Curry, I was hesitant at first when he attempted to sound the voice of a scared teenage girl, but after this point he is fabulous. The voices of Mogget the cat is particuarly brilliant and resounding. This was my dark bedtime story each night, making me remember being read to as a child.
Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
999 (YA )
2009 YA Challenge

My Thoughts: The Giver by Lois Lowry

I wouldn't normally ahve picked this book up as the cover and size of the font suggest that it is for children of around the age of 8-9, I prefer books aimed at older teens for my YA selection, so I'm glad this come up as a goodreads monthly read.
The novel is based in what appears to be a utopian world, there is no pain, class or races, no hunger, jealousy or need. Yet when you delve deeper you also discover that there is no free will, love or truth.
The novel features Jonas a young boy who is assigned the job of the Reciever of Memories. He is trained by the old Reciever who passes on memories of what the people of the community used to experience. It is only with these memories that you truly realise what this community has lost - great things like love, freedom and playing in the snow and also the things we'd like to abolish from the world like war, hunger and loss. Jonas' job is to keep these memories so no-oe else in the community has to experience pain, but you also wonder if it is so the community remains easy to control.

This is a great read for both adults and those over 11 (there are some big issues to deal with), and highly recommended, it's a book that will certainly leave you thinking.
Challenges:
2009 YA Challenge
999 (YA)
A-Z (Authors)

Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon: Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey

Pages read total: 938 (+ 66 pages of picture books)
Books read: Finished Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett, read What I Was by Meg Rosoff, The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, An Elgy for Easterly, Mrs Biddlebox (pic book), The Viewer by Gary Crew and Beauty Sleep by Cameron Dokey
Total reading time: approx 15 1/2 hours.


My final book of the read-a-thon (I'm going to read a short story in the last hour).
I saved this book especially for the read-a-thon and I'm really glad that I did.

Beauty Sleep is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Aurore as we know has two spells put on her as a baby, one that in her sixteenth year she will prick herself with a needle and live no more, the second a countering spell that says that the needle will send her to sleep for a hundred years till a prince awakens her with a kiss.
In this version Aurore is a tom boy, not a typical princess. Whe her parents allow her outside into the garden at 10 years old for the first time she immediately falls to gardening. As the years pass she happily (against her mothers wishes) gardens, builds fires, talks to the common people and gets a tan (something a princess isn't supposed to have).
On her sixteenth birthday the kingdom is suddenly plagued with disaster - the sky rains blood, death comes, wolfs hound the streets. Thinking this is all her fault: a result of her fate, Aurore runs away to an enchanted forest where her true fate is to be played out.
A great book to read for those who love fairytales retold.

Challenges:
2009 YA Challenge
999 (YA)
Once Upon a Time III

Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon: What I Was by Meg Rosoff

Pages read total: 348
Books read: Finished Bel Canto by Ann Pratchett, read What I Was by Meg Rosoff
Total reading time: approx 5 hours


What I Was is a teenage love story with a twist. Kipper is sent to boarding school in East Anglia (not too far from where I grew up), stuck in a small market town near the sea and a typical (of books) fierce boarding school he looks for an escape.
One dreary morning he abandons the cross country run and meets Finn, a young boy living alone in a shack by the sea. He has that first flush of teenage love - a love of longing and not sexual - and wants to become like Finn, to be free to do as he pleases and to fend for himself.
This is the third Rosoff book I have read and the third one that I have loved.
Challenges:
2009 YA Challenge
999 (YA Fiction)

Well I've had dinner now and it'll probably be dark here soon, can't believe the time is passing so quickly.

Going to decide what to read next and go visit a few bloggers

My Thoughts: The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

I came across this novel when I read Raidergirls review and quickly added it to the reservation list at the local library. I seem to be slowing down with my reading at the moment and have a rather large book on the go at the moment, so needed something easy to read to give me a sense of achievement, and this was just the thing.

The City of Ember is a post-apoclyptic novel, set in a largely recongnisable world. The city is a city of darkness, there is no moon or sun, and the electricity across the city is turned out each night at the same time. The food is largely tinned vegetables as there appears to be no animals except for bugs. Once this was a prosperous city, yet the stocks are now depleted, a tin of peaches is now something that can only be savoured in the minds of the elderly, and scraps of paper are saved and deemed as precious.
Doon and Lina, two teens who have just entered the workforce are concerned about the depleted stocks and the power cuts which are becoming more and more recent.
In Lina's flat, a damanged set of instructions are found and the pari set out to discover a new world for the inhabitants of the city.

The City of Ember is written for a 9+ audience, and it is important to remember that whilst reading, as many things seem a little to easy. I will be checking out the next book to see how their lives pan out.

Challenges:
A-Z (Author)
2009 Young Adult Book Challenge
End of the World II

My Thoughts: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman writes another corker. The Graveyard Book manages to draw you back to the childhood sensation of discovering a new world hidden in the depths of a few hundred pages.
The book is about Nobody Owens (Bod), escaping from murder at the age of one, Bod fines sanctuary in a Graveyard. The Ghosts and The Honour guard provide him with a family and a safe place to grow up, away from those who need to come to finish him off. As Bod grows older his obedience frays and he begins to explore the town around his graveyard placing himself in danger. The danger follows his scent, leading to a climactic ending.

Neil Gaiman managed to create a wonderful sense of place in this novel, the creepy graveyard transforming to become a place of warmth, love and security. The book is classified in our library as Young Adult, but this is a book which deserves to faind many many readers.

Challenges:
The Dream King 2/6
A-Z (Title)
The YA book Challenge 2/12
999 (New Fiction) 5/81
NaJuReMoNoMo 5/5

Reviews:
Bart
Stuff Dreams are Made On
Things Mean A Lot

My Thoughts: Beauty by Robin McKinley

McKinley has taken the classic fairytale Beauty and the Beast and reworked it into her own tale, presenting it to a new audience. I was really worried that this would be a modern take on the fairy tale, in a modern world, but I had nothing to worry about this book is set far enough back in history to contain the magic of a fairytale.
Beauty (an ungainly teenager) is removed from a life of poverty and a loving family when her father one day picks her a rose from the Beasts castle. She has to choose to live with the beast or give her father's life. Like any dutiful daughter it is her freedom which she chooses to forsake.
McKinley's depiction of the Beast's castle is mesmerising, I felt like I was back as a kid again, marvelling at Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Cinderella (can't ever recall having seen Beauty and the Beast - think Disney rereleased it when I was a teen and to cool to be watching stuff like that :rolleyes: The dishes fill themselves, she is dressed and pampered by invisible servants, and the ground of the castle change daily so she is never bored. She also has our fantasy library, more books than you could ever read, and it contains books not yet published, a view of the future she will not live to see.
Yes we all know how this story has to end, and McKinley sticks very close to the story, yet I was still wishing she would go back to him quickly before he faded away.
This may be kids fiction but definately is a must for anyone who loved/loves a happy ending and a fantasy world. Great for 9 year olds but also those of us who wish to escape to a magical world for a few hours. I'll definately be checking out her other books.

Challenges:

Fourth Annual NaJuReMoNoMo 1/5

999 Challenge 2/81

YA fiction 1/12

A-Z Challenge: Title 1/26

Other Reviews worth checking out:

Things Mean a Lot

Raidergirl 3

Rhiona's Ramblings

Have you reviewed this? If so pop a link to your review in the comments section

More Challenges for 2009

I do realise that I will probably not finish some of these but I really enjoy creating a 'pool' and looking at other peoples recommendations, which then leads me to abandon my pool and read something different.

The World Citizen Challenge
I've signed up to read at least 3 books. I have a few on my TBR pile to consider:
Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart, Tim Butcher
The Trouble With Tigers: The Rise and Fall of South-East Asia

Plus I'd like to read some history, I'm quite interested in Colonialisation and Slavery, or some books about Religion and Cultures - particuarly the treatment of women in other cultures.

2009 Young Adult Book Challenge
12 YA books. I've done this before and never struggled with it. I have several on my TBR pile I'd like to read including: the rest of the Twilight series,
the Scot Westerfeld books,
Witch Child,
Clay,
No Angels
And then I'll probably read some of the Carnegie nominees

Dewey's Books Reading Challenge

1. Pick one book from each of the 6 years that Dewey has archives of. You can
access her archives by clicking on the archive link in the sidebar of her website. It’s a dropdown menu. For
instance, you would read one book that she reviewed in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
2007, and 2008 for a total of six books.

I've linked each of the books to her review
2003: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
2004: The Inner Circle by T.C Boyle
2005: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
2006: Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
2007: The God of War by Marisa Silver
2008: After Dark by Haruki Murakami