Books read in November

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien--This is a reread. I don't know how many times I've read these books--15 or 20 is a good guess--but I've seen the films a few times in the last year and I felt that they were overshadowing the book story in my mind. I need to reread the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy again, so that Tolkien, not Peter Jackson, is the predominant storyteller in my head.

Shadow of the Giant and First Meetings by Orson Scott Card--These are the most recent books in the Ender's Game series. I read the first seven books of the series last year in the states, and recently found these two books at the "American Bookstore" in our new mall. Science Fiction is not a genre that I love (although I went through the obligatory phase when I was a teenager), but I was enticed by the philosophical aspects of the books to keep reading and reading. If I can justify yet another literature post next month, I'll write more about Shadow of the Giant because Mr. Card made some extremely strong and pertinent statements about Islam in the story.

Sanditon by Jane Austen and Another Lady--I already wrote about this one, and I enjoyed it very much.

A Right to Die by Rex Stout--This was finally the Nero Wolfe mystery I wanted to read. I can't even remember now which blogger recommended these, but I was pleased. The mystery wasn't that exciting, but I enjoyed the style of writing, and Nero Wolfe was reading a book by Jacques Barzun! One of those weird book coincidences...

Methuselah's Children by Robert Heinlein--another reread! I pulled this off the shelves to list it on Bookmooch, so it happened to be lying around while I was sick and needed something light and simple to read.

The House of Exile by Nora Waln--I'm on the last third of the book and finding it much harder going than the earlier part. This is a factual history, not fiction, and what was happening to China in the mid-1920's was violent and frightening to foreigners. I'll write more about that part of the book when I'm finished with it.

The History of Henry Esmond by William Thackery--I'm only about 1/4 of the way through this one and I'll have more to say about it later. This is a library book and I'll have to renew it for sure.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy--Yes, yes, still working on this. I read at least another 150 pages this month, but there are still some 300 to go. I will finish by January 31st!

It looks as if I've read a lot of fantasy and science fiction this month, but the time spent on them was fairly minimal. I read Orson Scott Card's books across just two days, and the Heinlein in about two hours (it's not one of his long ones). I read Tolkien in bits and pieces of time when I didn't have much time to read, because it's always easier to set aside something that I'm rereading, rather than a new story in which I'm engrossed.

Sad to say, I didn't make any progress on my Polish book at all this month. I really have to devote more time to that, and as soon as I finish The House of Exile, I'm going to focus more on that one. It's better if I schedule time to read it in the morning if I can, because my mind is much more alert then!

I have a niggling suspicion that I've missed something--that I read something else I forgot to list here--but that happens sometimes. I did read bits and pieces from other things, but it's too much trouble to list those.