Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day by Winifred Watson

I added Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day after hearing about the movie with the same name. I decided to read the book and I'm glad I did. It was a light hearted romp.
Miss Pettigrew's adventure starts with her looking for employment. Miss Pettigrew is a terrible governess but needs a job in order to keep her room. At the employment agency, Miss Pettigrew is given the name of Miss LaFosse who is looking for a governess. Miss Pettigrew heads to Miss LaFosse's residence determined to make this stick. But when she gets to Miss LaFosse's there are no children, but Miss LaFosse needs a lot of help and Miss Pettigrew is determined to help her. Miss LaFosse leads the opposite life of Miss Pettigrew. Miss LaFosse is a lounge singer, with more men than she knows what to do with. Determined to see Miss LaFosse settled down, Miss Pettigrew injects herself in a world she knows nothing about.
I loved both the fish out of water and the Cinderella aspects to Miss Pettigrew. Miss Pettigrew is about twenty years older than Miss LaFosse and her friends. Their expectations in life and with relationships are completely different. But Miss LaFosse welcomes Miss Pettigrew and gives her a makeover.
I really enjoyed Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. It was cute and an enjoyable read.

Darlene's Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I'm not doing very well with this challenge and need to pick up the pace! I need to make more of an effort to choose books from my list. But the new ones that come out are so tempting! Ah, the bane of a book-lover :)

I just finished Book #2 on my Fill In The Gaps list:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
3/5 stars

Here is the link to my review:
http://darlenesbooknook.blogspot.ca/2012/07/audiobook-review-road-by-cormac-mccarthy.html

Updates to List

I honestly can't remember my last update, but, I have read some more titles on my list. If my previous posts had correct math, I think I've read 51 books.

Collins, Wilkie. The Woman in White
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield.
Dickens, Charles. Little Dorrit.
 Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist.
Dickens, Charles. Our Mutual Friend.
Steinbeck, John. Grapes of Wrath
Zamyatin, Yevgeny. We.

Michelle (3M) at 1morechapter's Progress

Michelle (3M) from 1morechapter here. Wowsers. I just realized that I have less than two years to  finish at least 75% of this list. Reading 46 titles in two years is very doable. I just regret that I haven't gotten further along by now. One of the reasons is personal issues in 2010 that made me forego reading more than I should have. Hope to get back on track now, though. I didn't review all that I read, either, but there are some that are linked below.

Happy reading, everyone!

29/100

Bold titles have been read.

1. Middlemarch by George Eliot (1001)
2. War and Peace by Tolstoy (1001)
3. Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky (1001)
4. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (1001)
5. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (1001)
6. Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann (1001)
7. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1001)
8. Unless by Carol Shields (1001)
9. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (1001)
10. Memoirs of a Geisha by Golden (1001)
11. What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt (1001)
12. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera (1001)
13. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (1001)
14. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (1001)
15. Kafka on the Shore by Murakami (1001)
16. The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Murakami (1001)
17. Cry, the Beloved Country by Paton (1001)
18. Labrynthes by Borges (1001)
19. Ficciones by Borges (1001)
20. The Hobbit by Tolkien (1001)
21. Out of Africa by Denison (1001)
22. Brave New World by Huxley (1001)
23. Summer by Edith Wharton (1001)
24. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1001)
25. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1001)
26. Breathing Lessons – Anne Tyler (Pulitzer)
27. A Thousand Acres – Jane Smiley (Pulitzer)
28. Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Pulitzer)
29. Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Pulitzer)
30. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Pulitzer)
31. American Pastoral by Philip Roth (Pulitzer)
32. A Confederacy of Dunces by Toole (Pulitzer)
33. The Good Earth by Buck (Pulitzer)
34. So Big by Ferber (Pulitzer)
35. Gone with the Wind by Mitchell (Pulitzer)
36. Lonesome Dove by McMurtry (Pulitzer)
37. Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Pulitzer)
38. Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Pulitzer)
39. one title from 2010-2013 Pulitzers (Tinkers)
40. second title from 2010-2013 Pulitzers
41. one title from 2009-2013 Bookers (The Sense of an Ending)
42. second title from 2009-2013 Bookers
43. Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee (Booker)
44. Remains of the Day by Ishiguro (Booker)
45. Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (Booker)
46. Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally (Booker)
47. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie (Booker)
48. Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (Booker)
49. Possession by A.S. Byatt (Booker)
50. On Beauty by Zadie Smith (Orange)
51. Small Island by Andrea Levy (Orange)
52. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (Orange)
53. The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville (Orange)
54. Larry’s Party by Carol Shields (Orange)
55. The Road Home by Rose Tremain (Orange)
56. Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross by Sigrid Undset (Nobel laureate)
57. Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak (Nobel laureate)
58. Blindness by Saramago (Nobel laureate)
59. The Piano Teacher by Jelinek (Nobel laureate)
60. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Selma Lagerlof (Nobel laureate)
61. The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing (Nobel laureate)
62. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck (Nobel laureate)
63. Home by Marilynne Robinson (NYT/Orange)
64. The Maytrees by Annie Dillard (NYT)
65. Intuition by Allegra Goodman (NYT)
66. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (NYT)
67. Natasha and Other Stories by David Bezmozgis (NYT)
68. The Inhabited World by David Long (NYT)
69. The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin (NYT)
70. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Chabon (NYT)
71. Complete Tales of Nikolai Gogol, Vol. 2 (classic)
72. Anne of Windy Poplars by Montgomery (classic)
73. Anne’s House of Dreams by Montgomery (classic)
74. Anne of Ingleside by Montgomery (classic)
75. Rainbow Valley by Montgomery (classic)
76. Rilla of Ingleside by Montgomery (classic)
77. Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (sci-fi classic)
78. Perelandra by C.S. Lewis (sci-fi classic)
79. Our Horses in Egypt by Belben (James Tait Black Prize)
80. Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (PEN/Hemingway)
81. To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (Hugo)
82. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon (Nebula)
83. Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones (Commonwealth Writers’ Prize)
84. Outlander by Gil Adamson (Books in Canada First Novel Award)
85. Crow Lake by Mary Lawson (Books in Canada First Novel Award)
86. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (Norwegian in translation)
87. Periodic Table by Primo Levi (Italian in translation)
88. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (French in translation)
89. The Character of Rain by Nothomb (French in translation)
90. Sulphuric Acid by Nothomb (French in translation)
91. The Oxford Murders by Martinez (Spanish in translation)
92. The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
93. The Secret Lives of People in Love by Simon Van Booy
94. History of Love by Krauss
95. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer & Barrows
96. In the Woods by Tana French
97. Petropolis by Anya Ulinich
98. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
99. The Thing Around Your Neck by Adichie
100. The Spanish Bow by Andromeda Romano-Lax

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan

Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan

Summary: Rachel is a missionary kid living in British East Africa. The year is 1919 and The Great War is far from her, but a different kind of war dramatically changes her life and all that she has known for the past 13 years. Influenza has advanced and in its wake, it takes both her parents, who are mission doctors. Rachel has to trust her British neighbors, who she believes is dishonest. They take her in and send her to England. Her body maybe in England, but her heart is not. Her one desire is to return to the land that she calls home, Africa. 

My Thoughts: I've never been to Africa, so I can't tell you if the descriptions were accurate, but I can tell you that they were detailed. You could see and hear it, which I loved about this book. The other part that I liked is that Rachel is a third culture kid. I live overseas and have three TCKs of my own, so I could relate to some of the feelings she had when leaving Africa and adjusting to life in England. 

Update

I'm now one year and four months into the challenge and have read 27 of my books. They probably haven't been the toughest books on my list--and I know some of the driest are left--but I have read several books that I've put off for years. I loved The Poisonwood Bible, The Book Thief, The Remains of the Day, and The Shadow of the Wind. I appreciated Anna Karenina, although I can't say that I completely enjoyed it. I was bored by A Year in Provence and struggled with 100 Years of Solitude, although that may have been because I was sick. Last year was a slow reading year for me because I bought an old fixer-upper and planned and hosted a wedding for my daughter. This summer I hope to tackle a few of the weightier tomes on my list while I sit by the pool.
My list is here.

Lindy's Reading List

Some of these books have been stuck on my bookshelf for ages, and some are ones I am desperate to read, as always I am sure I have missed books and the list will grow ever longer with time.

1. The Robber Bride – Margaret Atwood
2. Regeneration – Pat Barker
3. The Eye in the Door – Pat Barker
4. A Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain
5. Villette – Charlotte Bronte
6. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte
7. The Thirty-Nine Steps – John Buchan
8. Possession – A.S.Byatt
9. The Postman Always Rings Twice – James M Cain
10. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – John le Carre
11. The Magic Toyshop – Angela Carter
12. Girl with the Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
13. An Autobiography – Agatha Christie
14. The Shooting Party – Isabel Colegate
15. The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle
16. Going Solo – Roald Dahl
17. Nothing is Safe – E.M.Delafield
18. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
19. Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens
20. The Old Curiousity Shop – Charles Dickens
21. The Mystery of Edwin Drood – Charles Dickens
22. Middlemarch – George Eliot
23. The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
24. Charlotte Gray – Sebastian Faulks
25. Human Traces – Sebastian Faulks
26. Faulks on Fiction – Sebastian Faulks
27. Snobs – Julian Fellowes
28. The History of Tom Jones – Henry Fielding
29. The Beautiful and the Damned – F. Scott Fitzgerald
30. Tender is the Night – F. Scott Fitzgerald
31. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safron Foer
32. Fall of Giants – Ken Follett
33. Howards End – E.M. Forster
34. A Room With A View – E.M.Forster
35. A Passage to India – E.M. Forster
36. The Six Wives of Henry VIII – Antonia Fraser
37. Must You Go? – Antonia Fraser
38. The Forsyte Saga – John Galsworthy
39. North and South – Elizabeth Gaskell
40. Goodbye to All That – Robert Graves
41. Fallen Skies – Philippa Gregory
42. The Lady of the Rivers – Philippa Gregory
43. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
44. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
45. The Woodlanders – Thomas Hardy
46. The Go-Between – L.P Hartley
47. Young Romantics – Daisy Hay
48. Howards End is on the Landing – Susan Hill
49. The Man in the Picture – Susan Hill
50. The Stranger’s Child – Alan Hollinghurst
51. The Iliad – Homer
52. The Expendable Man – Dorothy. B. Hughes
53. Birthday Letters – Ted Hughes
54. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
55. Goodbye to Berlin – Christopher Isherwood
56. When We Were Orphans – Kazuo Ishiguro
57. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
58. The Report – Jessica Frances Kane
59. Little Boy Lost – Margahrita Laski
60. Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H.Lawrence
61. Women in Love – D.H.Lawrence
62. Small Island – Andrea Levy
63. Bring up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
64. My Cousin Rachel – Daphne Du Maurier
65. Pure – Andrew Miller
66. Love in a Cold Climate – Nancy Mitford
67. Wigs on the Green – Nancy Mitford
68. The Blessing – Nancy Mitford
69. Madresfield – Jane Mulvagh
70. Starter For Ten – David Nicholls
71. The Understudy – David Nicholls
72. Byron in Love – Edna O’Brien
73. The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
74. 1984 – George Orwell
75. Decline of the English Murder – George Orwell
76. Half of the Human Race – Anthony Quinn
77. Clarissa – Samuel Richardson
78. Midnight’s Children – Salmon Rushdie
79. The Strange Fate of Kitty Easton – Elizabeth Speller
80. Perfume – Patrick Suskind
81. Vanity Fair – William M Thackery
82. The Hobbit – J.R.R.Tolkien
83. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
84. Jane Austen – Claire Tomalin
85. Charles Dickens – Claire Tomalin
86. Thomas Hardy – Claire Tomlain
87.The Little Stranger – Sarah Waters
88. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh
89. Scoop – Evelyn Waugh
90. Mary Boleyn – Alison Weir
91. The Lady in the Tower – Alison Weir
92. The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
93. The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
94. Greenbanks – Dorothy Whipple
95. They Were Sisters – Dorothy Whipple
96. The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
97. The Passion – Jeanette Winterson
98. The Kenneth Williams Diaries – Kenneth Williams
99. The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
100. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

As well as posting updates on here I will be writing about my reading progress on my word press blog www.lindylit.wordpress.com

I'm looking forward to hearing how everyone else is getting on with this challenge
 Lindy