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Book a Week in 2013 - week eleven


Robin M
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This week I've finished The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I thought I would. It was very interesting, though it can be a bit hard to keep everyone in the story straight since there are so many people involved. There were definitely some dull parts when unimportant bits seemed to drag on, but overall it was enjoyable and interesting.

 

 

Sounds interesting! I read Massie's Catherine the Great last year and enjoyed it. I'm going to add this to my TBR list.

 

I finished listening to Wolf Hall yesterday and really, really enjoyed it. It was so incredibly well performed, but the story and writing were compelling, too. It has lead me down a lot of rabbit trails, too. I immediately started listening to Bring Up the Bodies, and after that, I really feel like I need to read and watch A Man for All Seasons. (Bring Up the Bodies isn't read by the same person, sadly--but it's still good.)

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I'm listening to The Iliad on a player thing from the library. I'm also reading it for the edX class: The Ancient Greek Hero that started on Wednesday. I hope I can keep up with my reading and the coursework. Happily, I can count some of the coursework (Iliad, Odyssey) for here :)

 

First Saturday home essentially this year. I'm cleaning [boo], have a sick kiddo [double boo], and the dryer broke [when it rains it pours]. My husband is looking at washers and dryers now ....

 

 

Who's reading your Iliad? What edition? I'm listening to Alfred Molina read Stephen Mitchell's translation. I love it!

 

I'm so sorry about your Saturday. Hopefully kiddo will be better soon, a dryer will be procured, and the cleaning goes easy.

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I am keeping with my new years resolution to expand my reading horizons, so that is exciting. In doing that I am slowing down my reading.

 

I read several books at a time and I am finishing up all the books I have had started. I finished:

14} Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis here . This is about a girl who gave up everything, moved to Uganda and lives every day saying yes to God. Very challenging to practice.

13} Daybreak by Shelley Shepherd Gray Ok

12} The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Prologue was long. I read this in high school and I remember that the prologue never seemed to end, With this reading, after taking my dc through the history cycle x's 2, I understood and appreciated the prologue..

11} The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde Short story/play.

10} The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows. 9 } In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

8} Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

7}The Year of Learning Dangerously by Quinn Cummings

6} Emma by Jane Austen

5} A Walk in the Woods by Bill I Bryson

4} Hannah's Joy by Marta Perry

3} A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck.

2} Secrets at Sea by Richard Peck 1} His Love Endures Forever by Beth Wiseman

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Who's reading your Iliad? What edition? I'm listening to Alfred Molina read Stephen Mitchell's translation. I love it!

 

I'm so sorry about your Saturday. Hopefully kiddo will be better soon, a dryer will be procured, and the cleaning goes easy.

 

Thanks. I'm sure all those will. Just frutrating when it's all at once, you know?

 

I'm listening to John Lescault. It doesnt say who the translator is. It is different from the course's, but I think that's OK since I'm doing the reading too. On the upside it's on a device I can hang on a lanyard and listen while cleaning. Or ironing.

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Thanks. I'm sure all those will. Just frutrating when it's all at once, you know?

 

I'm listening to John Lescault. It doesnt say who the translator is. It is different from the course's, but I think that's OK since I'm doing the reading too.

 

I was curious. I think I have a crush on Mr. Molina's voice.

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I'm a little bummed that I didn't finish a book this week. But that's the way it goes sometimes. Anyway, I will continue reading Project-Based Homeschooling and Don Quixote this coming week.

 

In Process:

 

Project-Based Homschooling

Don Quixote

 

Completed:

 

11.) Simplicity Parenting

10.) The Well-Educated Mind

9.) Gone Girl

8.) Last Child in the Woods

7.) East of Eden

6.) The $100 Start Up

5.) A Christmas Carol

4.) Dracula

3.) The Night Circus

2.) Switch

1.) Getting Things Done

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Ok, I know we don't usually post on Sunday mornings until Robin gets the new thread going, but I was wondering if anyone had experience with Oliver Potzsch's The Hangman's Daughter series? The books are 0.99 today only for Kindle. I'm pretty snowed under right now, but these might make good summer reading. Any opinions? :bigear:

 

I really enjoyed the first book, and I just grabbed #2 and 3 and preordered 4 with today's deal. They are definitely worth 99 cents each, IMHO. Of course, I'm a huge historical fiction/mystery/crime fan, so YMMV.

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Wow what a change from my normal. I am reading The Iliad, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, and then listening to the narration by Matthew Josdal. Sounds like I'm not the only one. :)

 

 

What I'm wondering is why it took me until I was 40to read this. It is soooo good! Admittedly, the end of book two with the lists woud have been slow reading, but listening it flew by! Well, that and practice reading the lists of generations in the Bible can be longer and more tedious than that list.

 

I'm kinda mad that I never had to or chose to read it before.

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What I'm wondering is why it took me until I was 40to read this. It is soooo good! Admittedly, the end of book two with the lists woud have been slow reading, but listening it flew by! Well, that and practice reading the lists of generations in the Bible can be longer and more tedious than that list.

 

I'm kinda mad that I never had to or chose to read it before.

 

To be honest, I'm not sure I would have appreciated it when I was younger. At least not with the limited background I had in history before I started homeschooling. Now I have a DD13 who loves the Greek and Roman times, especially the wars. She had me reading out loud to her last night and I could see her reading it soon. I think some of that has to do with the homeschooling education she has received.

 

I'll also admit to having skipped reading the list at the end of book 2 and just listening to it. ;) The sparknotes are also helpful once I have read a book, I think I would miss things without the analysis sections. I don't think I would have understood the significance of the lists without them.

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Right now I'm reading A Room With a View for the first time ever (not too thrilled with it so far), a nonfiction, Lost Women of the Bible (love/hate relationship with this book), and am trying to slowly wade through a different Chabon since hating The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I'm planning to start listening to another Jeeves audio book as well.

 

If I had to pick a single novel to have for the rest of my life, it would be Middlemarch. The richness, depth, clarity, and compassion Eliot brings to her novels, paired with a... moral certainty isn't the right phrase at all, but I'm not finding the words I want.. amaze me. And her depictions of the way one person's minor choice or action can change the lives of others s/he hardly knows, the interconnectedness of humanity, the price of integrity & yet its pricelessness... I fell in love with this book when I was 15 or 16, and keep coming back to it over the years since.

 

 

Okay, I'm finally putting this on hold. I've never read this (either my parents didn't own it or I didn't notice it when I read a lot of literature, and then I never was interested when I read it later) but have been thinking about it.

 

 

â–  Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie; 2002. 104 pages. Fiction.) While history, friendship, and the vagaries of first love contribute to the power of this slim work, books are the real story -- how they change us, grow our imaginations, and sometimes free us. Beautiful and highly recommended.

 

 

I'm also putting a hold on this.

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Right now I'm reading A Room With a View for the first time ever (not too thrilled with it so far), a nonfiction, Lost Women of the Bible (love/hate relationship with this book), and am trying to slowly wade through a different Chabon since hating The Yiddish Policeman's Union. I'm planning to start listening to another Jeeves audio book as well.

 

 

 

Okay, I'm finally putting this on hold. I've never read this (either my parents didn't own it or I didn't notice it when I read a lot of literature, and then I never was interested when I read it later) but have been thinking about it.

 

 

 

I'm also putting a hold on this.

 

 

Maybe you could copy this post to this week's thread? Link.

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