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Book a Week in 2013 - week thirty


Robin M
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Happy Sunday, dear hearts!  Today is the start of week 30 in our quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks.  Welcome back to all our readers, to all those who are just joining in and to all who are following our progress.  Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 Books blog to link to your reviews.  The link is below in my signature.

 

52 Books Blog - More Bookish News:  I'm sure everyone has heard the news about J.K. Rowling's The Cuckoo's Calling which was written under a pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.  I recently downloaded and will let you know what I think.   When Harry Potter first came out, I didn't give it a thought. But when I heard the hype about it and calls to ban the book, well of course I had to read it. And fell in love with the characters and the story. Same thing happened with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.  Read it twice and loved it.   Rowling was a bit upset about the leak revealing she wrote the book.  I guess she hoped it stand on its own merits and sell not because of her name.  There are many authors who have written stories under different pseudonyms including Don Delillo who published under a book under a woman's name. Even Stephen King wrote a few novels under the name Richard Bachman back in the 70's and 80's. 

And for those of you who are armchair traveling around the world with me.  A Pack of Fun shared a link to A Year of Reading the World where a writer, Ann Morgan talks about a challenge she set for herself to read one book from every country in the world in one year.  Be sure to check out her list of books. You may just end up adding a few to your wishlists.

 

Today is also the anniversary of Ernest Hemingway's birthday.  You may want to consider reading one of his books this week, this month, or sometime this year.  I recently watched To Have and Have Not with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart so downloaded the book to read and compare.

 

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 29

 

 

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I finished # 4 Wizard and Glass in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  Roland relates the story from his teenage years when he became a gun slinger and fell in love as the group travels through a time warped Kansas.  Also 2/3rd done with reread of Laurel K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures # 1 in her Anita Blake series.   I'm a couple chapters into On a winter's night a traveler.  Having a wee bit of trouble getting into. 

 

Thanks to you guys I have downloaded Nalini Singh's Slave to Sensation and C.E. Murphy's Urban Shaman

 

And just had to share the latest find from Flavorwire,  Smartest men looking smart in shorts including Mr. Hemingway

 

ernest-hemingway.jpg?w=363&h=490

 

 

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Simultaneously reading Trollope, Pindar, and a history of printing in Europe. Also, dh, perhaps to make amends for his recommendation of The Wasp Factory*, brought me home from the university library The Intellectual Life of the British Working Class, which looks fantastic and right up the alley of classical homeschoolers and Core Knowledge fans.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Life-British-Working-Classes/dp/0300153651

 

So I have plenty on my plate for this week or so!

 

*When we were in high school, he gave me a copy of a particularly wretched book by Robert Heinlein called The Cat Who Walked Through Walls or some such. When I finished and mentioned it wasn't what I preferred to read, he said "Yes, isn't it terrible?" You'd think I'd have gotten a clue since then.

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Stumbled across a new Dracula book in the library, so I've happily started it: "Stoker's Manuscript" by Royce Prouty. The New York Journal of Books describes it as being "Dan Brown meets Anne Rice". I'm not too far into it yet, but am enjoying the ride so far. No sparkly vamps here -- this is Vlad Tepes territory.

 

I have also started "Captain Alatriste" by Arturo Perez-Reverte, which is perhaps more reading toward the continental challenge (Europe/Spain).

 

--------------------------

My Goodreads Page

My PaperbackSwap Page

Working on Robin's Dusty &/or Chunky Book Challenge.

Working on Robin's Continental Challenge.

Working on LostSurprise's Dewey Decimal Challenge. Complete Dewey Decimal Classification List here.

 

My rating system:

5 = Love; 4 = Pretty awesome; 3 = Decently good; 2 = Ok; 1 = Don't bother (I shouldn't have any 1s on my list as I would ditch them before finishing)...

 

2013 Books Read:

Link to Books # 1 – 40 that I’ve read in 2013.

 

41. If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (5 stars). Challenge: Continental – Europe (Italy).

42. The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello (3.5 stars). Challenge: Continental -- Europe (Italy).

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Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis – A great moving child’s book.  I enjoyed the twist at the end and would have liked to know what happened next. 

 

The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman – I sat and read this is one sitting.  It moved fast and the little girl had me cheering her on from page one. 

 

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear – This took me awhile to get into it but I like how she did the mystery and towards the end I started to feel a connection with the characters.  I’m interested in reading more of her books to see if she can really develop them into three dimensional characters that will make for a fun cozy series. 

 

Decorating is Fun by Dorothy Draper – Another fun read but not as much fun as her book on Entertaining.  A few suggestions had me recoiling in horror (she suggests removing any stained glass windows you have and I adore stained glass), some had me laughing (her suggestion on wallpapering your ceilings), and others were great (suggestions on sizing lamps was very useful). 

 

In Progress:
 

Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery (read aloud)

Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse (audiobook)

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

 

2013 finished books:
 

55. Decorating is Fun by Dorothy Draper (****)

54. Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (****)

53. The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman (****)

52. Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (** **)

51. Entertaining is Fun: How to be a Popular Hostess by Dorothy Draper  (*****)

50. The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories by Agatha Christie (audiobook) (***)

Amy's Rating System:

***** - Fantastic, couldn't put it down
**** - Very good
*** - Enjoyable but nothing special
** - Not recommended
* - Horrible

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Friends, Lovers, Chocolate - 4 Stars - I really enjoy the Isabel Dalhousie books.

 

Pale Boy - 2 Stars - very short story, but a Kindle book nonetheless - a bit weird to say the least. 

 

9780349119175.jpg  41mZK0B38xL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-stic

 

MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay – nothing to write home about

1 Star

Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

 

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I read and enjoyed True to the Law by Jo Goodman; it's a historical romance set in the American West.

 

"He was on the hunt for a runaway beauty

 
“Find her†is the only instruction that private detective Cobb Bridger receives from Richard Mackey. The scion of a wealthy Chicago family, Mackey is desperate to know the whereabouts of the woman who disappeared from his employ, taking with her something of great value. Intrigued as much by what Mackey won’t say about the missing item as he is by Mackey’s description of the missing woman, Cobb accepts the assignment.
 
And the one true lie that could destroy them both
 
Bitter Springs, Wyoming, has a new schoolteacher who may or may not be exactly what she seems. Upon making the acquaintance of Miss Tru Morrow, Cobb begins to question the guilt of this golden-haired lady—and the protective feelings she stirs in him. His investigation hinges on understanding where the truth lies. Can he believe in Tru? Or is she just another treacherous woman out to swindle this hardened detective’s heart?"
 
It's a follow up to one of the author's recent books; however, it can certainly stand alone.
 
Regards,
Kareni

 

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Over the past couple weeks, I have revisited the Harry Potter series... Finished the first two and now reading Prisomer of Azkaban, which is quite possibly my favorite. I also read "Family Pictures" by Jane Green, and "Where'd You Go Bernadette?" by Maria Semple. Both were good reads... Family Pictures was a bit predictable in some regards, but still a good story. Really liked Bernadette, and wasn't ready for it to end!

 

This week: keep going through Harry Potter. And I've been planning to read Hemingway this summer, so in light of Robin's mention of him, I'm going to start "The Sun Also Rises."

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Finished The Adderall Diaries by Stephen Elliot and Imago (Xenogenesis series) by Octavia Butler this week. 

 

Adderall Diaries is touted as an important memoir and Elliot as one of the rising stars of the last decade. He uses the true-crime murder of Nina Reisner to investigate himself, and his relationship with his father. What comes out of it is a somewhat narcissistic and often depressing look at the modern age following Nietzsche's "there are no facts, only interpretations" and "all writing is autobiography." Elliot's style is controlled and understated, making it easier to read passages about drug addiction, abandonment, sado-masochism, isolation, depression, and self-harm. Even while you're thinking to yourself 'this guy is messed up' you're also recognizing how self-aware Elliot is and how well he makes connections and pulls out metaphors between seemingly different people and situations. He's messed up, but he's still trying to understand it all. 

 

Imago is the 3rd and last installment of Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, where a destroyed Earth and humanity is saved by an alien race, but only as a "trading partner" in that race's biologic need to continually modify itself. Not as explorative of the issues of freedom, sex, human violence, survivor's guilt, the need for a purpose, the biological need to reproduce as the other 2 installments. I was happy to finish this up, but I felt Butler had assumed the alien viewpoint to such a degree that it lost some of its ethical complexity. 

 

Pulled out Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler and the 3rd Harry Potter out to work on this week. Lots of cookbooks to go through too (Donna Hay, Alice Medrich, David Lebovitz). 

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Finished this series:


 


#41 Forgiven (Sisters of the Heart, Book Three), by Shelley Shepard Gray


 


#42 Grace (Sisters of the Heart, Book Four), by  Shelley Shepard Gray


 


Currently reading: 


 


#43 Sabbath:  Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, by Wayne Muller.  Not what I expected, but not bad, either.  I was hoping for more of a perspective on attempting to make the Sabbath (the actual day) holy and restful, productive for ones' soul.  Rather, this book presents a myriad of beliefs and multiple suggestions for celebrating *little Sabbaths* throughout the week - whether daily, multiple times a day, weekly, or less often than daily but more frequently than weekly.  Some of the author's examples about nature's natural rhythmical cycles is eye-opening and/or intriguing.  Some of his thoughts are too *New-Age* for my personal tastes.  Other thoughts, however, caught my attention in a mostly positive way.  Here's one that just happens to be in near vicinity to where my book marker currently rests:


 


 


"Many scientists believe we are "hard-wired" like this, to live in rhythmic awareness, to be in and then step out, to be engrossed and then detached, to work and then to rest.  It follows then that the commandment to remember the Sabbath is not a burdensome requirement from some law-giving deity - 'You ought, you'd better, you must' - but rather a remembrance of a law that is firmly embedded in the fabric of nature.  It is a reminder of how things really are, the rhythmic dance to which we unavoidably belong."


 


Here's another:


 


"Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop.  We do not stop when we are finished.  We do not stop when we complete our phone calls, finish our project, get through this stack of messages, or get out this report that is due tomorrow.  We stop because it is time to stop.  Sabbath requires surrender.  If we only stop when we are finished with all our work, we will never stop - because our work is never completely done. ... Sabbath dissolves the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished." (emphasis his)


 


Some of his Sabbath suggestions include walking in nature, simply enjoying it - quietly; lighting candles at special times; preparing special meals; quietly blessing/praying for others - known or unknown people.  Nothing spectacular; mostly sensical.  


 


I'll probably finish the book even though I'm about 50/50 (liking/not liking) it . . .


 


Also in the midst of another nonfiction book and one fiction novel - but too tired to go get them so I can post their titles correctly . . . 

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I read The Road From Home by David Kherdian last week and forgot to mention it. It was during my break from WWII; went from reading about the persecution of the Jews to the persecution of the Armenians by the Turks in the early 20th century. It's a biography of the author's mother. This was a pre-read; my 13 yo will read it during the school year. Also finished Willa Cather's My Antonia. Loved her beautiful descriptions.

 

I'm currently testing Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago v. 1 (615 pages) to see if I want to dive in completely. Not sure what else I'll read this week.

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And for those of you who are armchair traveling around the world with me.  A Pack of Fun shared a link to A Year of Reading the World where a writer, Ann Morgan talks about a challenge she set for herself to read one book from every country in the world in one year.  Be sure to check out her list of books. You may just end up adding a few to your wishlists.

 

 

That's great! I bookmarked the list and have so far added The Decapitated Chicken and Other Stories to my to-read list.

 

Baby Lore. Rather interesting book about superstitions and the like of pregnancy and childbirth, most are just ridiculous.

Ooh! Have you come across the cimaruta? That's something I was just reading about the other day. - A charm that some believe was hung on cradles to keep the evil eye away from newborns, or something like that.

 

Again this week, I did not get much reading done. I spent a lot of time watching my very little nephew instead. I did finish two short books though. I finished What the Buddha Taught by Walpola Rahula. This is a thin book, but it's dense. I thought I would read it in a day, but then I ended up limiting myself to one chapter per day to make sure I absorbed at least some of it. This book did clear up some things I was confused about, and I went to a Buddhist temple this morning to sit zazen for 40 minutes and listen to a dharma talk.

 

I also read After the Quake, a book of five short stories by Haruki Murakami. I remember Stacia mentioning that she found Murakami's writing surreal (in addition to or instead of?) magical realist when we were reading 1Q84, and I thought that was even more true of the stories in this book.

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My theme for reading this year has been 20th Century classics and all the lists I looked at had 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Usually I enjoy books that follow a whole family for generations and I did enjoy that part of the story.  But overall, this wasn't a book that I see myself ever reading again.  There wasn't much of a story to follow, just people making the same bad decisions over and over and over again.  There was a lot of incest in the book which was very uncomfortable and not pleasant to read.  Not every story has an obligation to be uplifting but you can only read about someone carrying on with their aunt or cousin or sister so many times before it gets old.  
 
Overall, I can see why people call this a classic.  It was an interesting look at life in 19th Century Mexico and it was pretty epic in how it followed the one family through all it's ups and downs.  But I was glad to finish it and get on to something more my style.  
 
1 - All The King's Men â€“ Robert Penn Warren 
2 - A Stranger in a Strange Land â€“ Robert Heinlein
3 - A Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
4 - Catcher in the Rye â€“ J.D. Salinger
5 - Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
6 - The Grapes of Wrath â€“ John Steinbeck
7 – Murder on the Orient Express â€“ Agatha Christie
8 – The Illustrated Man â€“ Ray Bradbury
9 – The Great Gatsby â€“ F. Scott Fitzgerald
10 – The Hiding Place â€“ Corrie Ten Boom
11 – The Square Foot Garden â€“ Mel Bartholomew
12 - Catch-22- Joseph Heller
13 - Heart of Darkness- Joseph Conrad
14 - Partners in Crime - Agatha Christie
15 - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
16 -O, Pioneers!- Willa Cather
17 - Miss Marple - The Complete Short Story Collection - Agatha Christie
18 - Ringworld - Larry Niven
19 - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man- James Joyce
20 - Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
21 - To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
22 - Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
23 - The Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow
24 - The War of the Worlds- H.G Wells
25 - The Girl with the Pearl Earring - Tracy Chevalier 
26 - The Golden Ball and Other Stories - Agatha Christie
27 - Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
28 - Selected Short Stories - William Faulkner
29 - 100 Years of Solitude -  Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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I finished "Stoker's Manuscript" already. It has been a long time since I've cranked through a book in a single day. If you're a Dracula fan, this is a worthy addition to the genre -- a mash-up of Dracula, The Historian, a dash of John Grisham & Dan Brown, & a splash of People of the Book, all while creating a new plot based on the history & lore of Vlad Tepes & Dracula. It's an easy, yet thoroughly engaging read. I'd probably give the writing 3 stars, but I'm giving it 4 stars overall because it's fun entertainment when you're in the mood for a vampire yarn....

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I finished Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu, by J. Maarten Troost this past week.  I'm glad I stuck with it, as I found it to be quite enjoyable.  I've never read that kind of book before, so I'm glad I picked it up.  I hope to read more travelogue kind of books in the future.

 

I read a little more in Dragonfly in Amber, but I keep getting distracted by other stuff.  I started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but then picked up and started By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer.  This one has caught my attention, and I'm a little over half way through it.  I love Randy Singer's writing.  He writes murder mysteries/courtroom drama, and I haven't read one by him yet that I didn't enjoy.  

 

[edited to remove picture]

 

The Round Up

43. Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu
42. The Girl Who Chased the Moon
41. The Sugar Queen
40. 1Q84
39. The Long Winter
38. Warm Bodies
37. Garden Spells
36. The Peach Keeper
35. The Memory Keeper's Daughter
34. The First Four Years
33. These Happy Golden Years
32. Little Town on the Prairie
31. Amglish, in Like, Ten Easy Lessons: A Celebration of the New World Lingo
30. The Call of the Wild
29. By the Shores of Silver Lake
28. Pippi Longstocking
27. On the Banks of Plum Creek
26. Hiroshima
25. Farmer Boy
24. 1984
23. This Book is Full of Spiders
22. Little House on the Prairie
21.  Evolutionism and Creationism
20.  John Dies at the End
19.  Much Ado About Nothing
18.  Little House in the Big Woods
17.  Hooked
16.  Anne of the Island
15.  Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
14.  Anne of Avonlea
13.  Anne of Green Gables
12.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret
11.  The Swiss Family Robinson
10.  Little Women
9.  Why We Get Fat
8.  The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
7.  Outlander
6.  The New Atkins for a New You
5.  A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows
4.  Liberty and Tyranny
3.  Corelli's Mandolin
2.  The Neverending Story
1.  The Hobbit

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Have any of you sci fi fans ever read Hyperion?  My ds started reading (listening) to it based on the recommendation of a friend, and he was loving it so much that I started it too.  It is riveting!  It has a bit of an HPLovecraft atmosphere with a horrific mythic creature.  The story is unfolding through 7 people sharing their stories while on a pilgrimage to the creature.  

 

I managed to fit in 3 panel discussions by sci fi and fantasy authors over the weekend at Comic Con.  They all talked quite a bit about world building and following the logic of that world when crafting a story.  One example of an illogical world was having  huge trading city in the middle of the desert where there was nothing there to trade or no existing trade routes.  One of the more interesting discussions was about the difference in writing YA books.  Several authors talked about how editors will cut out any long sections describing a world as it is felt the YA audience is too impatient to wade through it.  They talked about the need to have, in dystopian YA novels, something positive, some hint of a hope and how that is most often accomplished through a love interest.  An audience member asked why a romance was necessary, why couldn't there be an independent and resourceful single woman as the protagonist, but there wan't a good answer!  

 

I didn't find any new authors through these panels, but I did pick up some new books.  While I was chatting Sunday morning with the tired young 20-somethings working at the Random House booth (Comic-Con runs 4 days and is an absolute madhouse), I happened to pick up a book by Charles Yu and the 3 of them started gushing about it.  The books were half off that day, so I grabbed two books by the author:  How to LIve Safely in a Science Fictional Universe and Sorry, Please, Thank You, a collection of short stories.  I also bought a large collection of short stories that was recently compiled and published as a fund raiser for Shawn Speakman, an author who was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma.  The collection is Unfettered and it has stories by Patrick Rothfuss, Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan and Kevin Hearne, to name a few.

 

 

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I have put "If on a Winter's Night a Traveller" aside for a few days. We are going out of town overnight tomorrow and I know I don't want to take it with me. Just not a car book. I have a few new paranormals on my kindle and dd has picked out some "real" books that we can both enjoy!

 

I finished "Soulless" by Gail Carriger this morning. As Stacia said it was an enjoyable summer read. As to my question of the difference between being soulless and null(as in Dead Spots by Melissa Olson) the answer is that soullessness as portrayed here is less dramatic overall, more soothing--werewolves don't have to turn on a full moon, vampires fangs retract. With the null character magic ceases to exist so elall paranormals turn human. This book may have been less dramatic but I loved the Victoria setting. The Queen even appears.... I have the rest of the series requested from various libraries which says it all! ;)

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I've managed to finish three books over the past couple of weeks:  #28 - The Lost Hero, #29 - The Son of Neptune, and #30 - The Mark of Athena, all part of the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan.  All three were light, fluffy, action-packed reads that were great for getting my minds off other problems over the past couple of weeks.

 

Books to Read

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Redwall (to preview for kids)

 

Ongoing books

The One Year Bible

The History of the Ancient World by Bauer (I did manage to make some progress in this one this week)

 

Completed books

27.  The Well-Educated Mind by Bauer

26.  The Last Olympian by Riordan

25.  The Battle of the Labyrinth by Riordan

24.  How to Read a Book by Adler

23. The Titan's Curse by Riordan
22. The Horse and His Boy by Lewis
21. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Lewis
20. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle
19. The Sea of Monsters by Riordan
18. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Stevenson
17. Captains Courageous by Kipling
16. Getting Things Done by Adler
15. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken
14. The Neverending Story by Ende
13. The Coral Island by Ballantyne
12. The Magician's Nephew by Lewis
11. The Children of Green Knowe by Boston
10. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Twain
9. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Fleming
8. Oliver Twist by Dickens
7. The Lightning Thief by Riordan
6. Children of the New Forest by Marryat
5. The Black Cauldron by Alexander
4. Anne of Avonlea by Montgomery
3. Anne of Green Gables by Montgomery
2. Talking Money by Chatzky
1. Pride and Prejudice by Austen

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Have any of you sci fi fans ever read Hyperion?  My ds started reading (listening) to it based on the recommendation of a friend, and he was loving it so much that I started it too.  It is riveting!  It has a bit of an HPLovecraft atmosphere with a horrific mythic creature.  The story is unfolding through 7 people sharing their stories while on a pilgrimage to the creature.  

 

 

I've read it and the next book in the series (Fall of Hyperion). I really liked the Canterbury Tales meets space apocalypse theme. I thought the characters and the tales were really diverse and interesting. I was really, really annoyed when there was no (zero) closure at the end of the book. Even books within a series should have *some* kind of closure (even as they open up new possibilities), even a little closure, at the end. 

 

So I was mad, and waited a year or two before reading the second one. I haven't read Endymion or the one after that. 

 

Who's your favorite character so far? 

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I'm in the midst of a couple of books. Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny is a mystery within a mystery with a back story going on as well. 

 

I had started that and then a couple of days later added If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. I've only been able to read a couple of chapters in that one. For me it's the kind of book I have to concentrate on to follow what's happening. I had a busy week last week and just wanted something to relax with before bed so I didn't spend much time on it.  I'm hoping to finish at least one of these books this week.

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I finished Captain Alatriste by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I wanted to like this more than I did. It was fine but not quite the swashbuckling adventure I had hoped it would be. Perhaps the storytelling style or the translation didn't do justice to the plot and characters. I'm glad a Goodreads member (Clif Hostetler) wrote about the historical event around which the plot revolves; reading his commentary, plus researching some of the history on my own, made the story much more interesting to me.

 

Since the story is told in past tense by Captain Alatriste's assistant, I found the story 'off' in some parts where Alatriste's thoughts & actions were detailed when the assistant was not even present. Still, I enjoyed the history & descriptions of Madrid. It probably helped that I've actually visited Madrid and knew some of the places mentioned -- Retiro park, the palace, various plazas & thoroughfares, etc....

 

Overall, I'd give it 3 stars.

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I read and enjoyed Lisa Marie Rice's I Dream of Danger: A Ghost Ops Novel.  It's a futuristic romantic suspense novel; it is not for the conservative reader.

 

"They are the Ghost Ops: a covert squad of super-elite soldiers. After their team was betrayed and massacred, the three surviving members went underground and built Haven, a community of misfits and geniuses. Now they're at a crossroads, facing a new threat capable of destroying everything they hold dear.

 

When Nick Ross disappears from Elle Thomason's life, she is certain she'll never see the man she loves again—except in her dreams. Ten years later, as a respected researcher breaking new ground in psychic phenomena, she sends a desperate call for Nick's help. One by one, her colleagues have started disappearing . . . and Elle knows she's next. An elite soldier, Nick never meant to hurt Elle, duty kept him away—and then she vanished. Now troubled by unusually vivid, disturbing dreams of Elle in danger, Nick will rescue the only woman he's ever wanted and bring her back with him to Haven.

 

Though powerful men are after Elle and her special abilities, Nick will die before leaving her side again."

 

 

I have to admit to enjoying the author's bio which reads as follows:  "Lisa Marie Rice is eternally 30 years old and will never age. She is tall and willowy and beautiful. Men drop at her feet like ripe pears. She has won every major book prize in the world. She is a black belt with advanced degrees in archaeology, nuclear physics, and Tibetan literature. She is a concert pianist. Did I mention her Nobel Prize? Of course, Lisa Marie Rice is a virtual woman who exists only at the keyboard when writing erotic romance. She disappears when the monitor winks off."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

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I finished The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter Beagle. I enjoyed it.  His writing is not the strongest, but this book was very original.  I've heard it's inspired other writers, and I can see why.  It's unique in it's approach, especially for the time it was written in.   I'm currently reading The Vampires in the Lemon Grove.  It's ok.  It's sort of like reading Twilight Zone stories, but sometimes it feels like she forgot the ending.  I have 2 more short stories to go in the book.  The writing is very good, I've just been a bit lost on a few of the stories.  

 

I'm listening to Changing Planes, by Ursula Le Guin.  It must be a short book, since it's about 11 hrs of listening.  It's been fun to listen to one of her books.  I enjoy her writing so much, and I'm pleased to find it comes across just as well when I hear it.  It's a sci-fi book, very quirky.  

 

I found out that the one of the libraries in the area has House of Leaves, which I'm intrigued by.  I will be up that way the first week of August. If I can get it then I will check it out.  

 

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I found out that the one of the libraries in the area has House of Leaves, which I'm intrigued by. I will be up that way the first week of August. If I can get it then I will check it out.

Will they let you request it & send it to your branch?

 

On a different note, I have also started reading The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-manual-of-detection-by-jedediah-berry-2004293.html

 

From Publishers Weekly:

 

"Set in an unnamed city, Berry's ambitious debut reverberates with echoes of Kafka and Paul Auster. Charles Unwin, a clerk who's toiled for years for the Pinkerton-like Agency, has meticulously catalogued the legendary cases of sleuth Travis Sivart. When Sivart disappears, Unwin, who's inexplicably promoted to the rank of detective, goes in search of him. While exploring the upper reaches of the Agency's labyrinthine headquarters, the paper pusher stumbles on a corpse. Aided by a narcoleptic assistant, he enters a surreal landscape where all the alarm clocks have been stolen. In the course of his inquiries, Unwin is shattered to realize that some of Sivart's greatest triumphs were empty ones, that his hero didn't always come up with the correct solution. Even if the intriguing conceit doesn't fully work, this cerebral novel, with its sly winks at traditional whodunits and inspired portrait of the bureaucratic and paranoid Agency, will appeal to mystery readers and nongenre fans alike."

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I've read it and the next book in the series (Fall of Hyperion). I really liked the Canterbury Tales meets space apocalypse theme. I thought the characters and the tales were really diverse and interesting. I was really, really annoyed when there was no (zero) closure at the end of the book. Even books within a series should have *some* kind of closure (even as they open up new possibilities), even a little closure, at the end. 

 

So I was mad, and waited a year or two before reading the second one. I haven't read Endymion or the one after that. 

 

Who's your favorite character so far? 

 

Hard to say -- I don't know yet.  I like the counselor, though I don't know much about him and his story is last, according to my ds.  I've just finished the 3rd story, the poet's, which I liked very much as it was really funny.  The priest's story was especially riveting.  I had gleaned from Amazon reviews that this book doesn't have a conclusion, so I'm prepared.  I can imagine you were ticked if you didn't know!

 

I finished The Innkeeper's Song, by Peter Beagle. I enjoyed it.  His writing is not the strongest, but this book was very original.  I've heard it's inspired other writers, and I can see why.  It's unique in it's approach, especially for the time it was written in.  

 

I have only read one of his short stories, but the book of his which I hear other fantasy authors rave about is The Last Unicorn.  I'm going to have to get around to it one of these days!

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Will they let you request it & send it to your branch?

 

 

 

I belong to 2 different library systems, neither in my town.  Both are out of state.  The first is the next town up.  It's a small, but very nice library.  The other one is a few towns away.  They are much larger with a couple of branches.  I used to go up that way all of the time, making it convienent to get our books there.  We go up that way less often now, but it still has a lot more books, and since I'm heading that way, I'll stop in.  

 

Our poor little town has a very, very, small library.  Our state does not give much money to libraries.

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Has anyone read David Foster Wallace's The Pale King? I am reading it now. It makes me sooooo sleepy but it is wonderful all at the same time. I am do sad that he is gone, his words are lovely.

HAVING to read Contractors Guide To Business Law and Project Management from the always fun to read collection by the National Association of State Contractors. It's riveting.

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<strong>Please include attribution to <a href="http://laura-e-kelly.com">Laura E. Kelly </a> with this graphic.</strong> <em>(Click to view at original large size.)</em><br />
<a href="http://www.laura-e-kelly.com/creative-work/infographics/reader-species"><img alt="What Species of Reader Are You?--Infographic" src="http://www.laura-e-kelly.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Reader-Species-Infographic1.png" width="432px" border="0" /></a><br />
Visit <a href="http://Laura-e-Kelly.com"">Laura-e-Kelly.com</a> for more about books, reading, and authors.

 

Me: Reader, Book Lover, Free-Range, "It's Complicated"

 

What're you?

 

EDIT: The linky thing didn't work.  Follow this link for a neat infographic!

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Me: Reader, Book Lover, Free-Range, "It's Complicated"

 

What're you?

 

EDIT: The linky thing didn't work. Follow this link for a neat infographic!

So neat! Thanks for posting.

 

I think I fall into many categories....

 

Reader: Book Lover: Compulsive: Cherisher (The Library Lover)

Reader: Book Lover: Situational: Omnireader & Traveling Reader

Reader: Book Lover: Social: Book Clubber

Reader: Book Lover: Free-Range: Eclectic & "It's Complicated"

Reader: Book Lover: Prestige: Reader the Obscure (plus a wee bit Anachronist too)

 

I don't think there are any book hater categories for me (even though there are a few books that I will admit that I "love to hate" them). Lol.

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Me: Reader, Book Lover, Free-Range, "It's Complicated"

 

What're you?

 

EDIT: The linky thing didn't work.  Follow this link for a neat infographic!

 

 

 

 

Definitely 

 

Book Lover: Free Range: Eclectic

and 

Book Lover: Compulsive: Book Abuser: The Multitasker

 

Its not unusual for me to work on 2-4 wildly different books on the same day. And I don't always bookmark either. I just look for the last place I stopped. (I never used to bookmark...which is why I'm an abuser with my books all laying face down in different parts of the house...but I'm getting better at it as I get older.)

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I am definitely Book Lover: Compulsive: Preserver.

 

If I buy a book for myself and dh borrows it, he knows he HAS to use a bookmark or I will flip! I just cringe when he reads his own books. He happily dogears one page after another or leaves it lying face down open to the last page he was on. When I see this, my heart starts doing palpitations. And don't get me started on the books my kids read for school! I guess I could be bordering the OCD category on this....

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Love the infographic.  I'm totally the cross-bred reader mutt.

 

I finished up By Reason of Insanity by Randy Singer.  I really enjoyed it.  I'm not an avid reader of mysteries, so I didn't have this one figured out at all.  Throughout the book, I think I accused every character at least once for being the killer.  LOL

 

I have succumbed to the siren call of a new knitting project, so I have started listening to my audio copy of Dragonfly in Amber.  That may be the only "reading" I get done until my final cast-off stitch.   :D

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I finally finished another book, too.  Dorothy Sayers' Five Red Herrings was not my favorite Lord Peter.  Glad to be done with is.  Next up Have His Carcase.

 

In between, I'm reading Alexander and the Wonderful, Marvelous, Excellent, Terrific Ninety Days which was mentioned here. I 'm enjoying it very much ... humor, self deprication, and common sense wrapped up in lovely prose.  Yum.

 

Glad you're all enjoying the infographic.  It's fun!

 

dawn :)

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Just as an aside, is anyone interested in a Shakespeare Read-Along in August?  PBS's Great Performances is finally (finally!!) broadcasting the new productions of Richard III, Henry IV, and Henry V beginning at the end of September.  The trailer is here.  I. Can't. Wait!!!  The cast is amazing.   I am determined to read all three plays (or four plays if you count Henry IV parts 1 & 2) before the premiere(s).  Anyone want to join me?

 

Yes! I need to read some more dramas to reach one of my 5/5/5 goals, and I have never read Richard III.

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I'm definitely a cross breed mutt who is a free range book worshiper, who loves to travel with Kindle (err nook) and Audiobooks and we can throw in a bits of self consciousness, along with some bathroom reading and if I'm crazy enough to take a book to good book to bed - end up reading all night.

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So, imagine you trip & fall down Alice's rabbit-hole, tumbling past dreamscapes & spooky carnival sideshows before landing with a thump in a smoky jazz bar filled with pajama-clad characters from Inception & The Maltese Falcon. (Don't fail to notice the shadow of someone from Minority Report lurking in the deepest shadow. See it? Right by the deep-green poster with an all-seeing golden eye....) Feeling disoriented & sore from your fall, you head directly for the bar. Bartender Thursday Next suggests you try the "Drink Me" special & begins mixing it before you even open your mouth to speak. Into the shaker, she pours:

Magritte's umbrellas

Col. Mustard in the kitchen with a gun

A decoder ring from a Cracker Jack box

Elephant dreams

A ticking alarm clock

And a healthy shot of rain

With a flick of the wrist, Thursday shakes, then pours your drink over cubes of red leaves before adding a garnish of phonograph record speared on a freshly-sharpened pencil. She yawns & slides your drink across the bar. Fog is fingering its way out over the rim as you raise the glass in a toast to clerks, typewriters, & biloquists. You down the drink in one swallow while simultaneously tossing it over your left shoulder into the harbor, trailing a stretch of typewriter ribbon as it sinks below the surf.

 

Thirsty yet? If so, crack open the emerald cover of The Manual of Detection (by Jedediah Berry) & fall right in....

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I finished three books in the car. :) The first was "One Foot in the Grave" by Jeaniene Frost. The second paranormal series that I am working my way through. I also have the first in another series by the same author but haven't tried it yet.

 

Dd and I both finished "First Among Sequels" by Jasper Fforde. Not my favorite Thursday Next. I am hoping number six is better. We also finished "Birds of a Feather" by Jacqueline Winsper. This was the second Maisie Dobbs. Nice light reads. Not bad for a two day trip. :lol: It was the only good thing about waiting over 3 hours for our ferry.

 

Our third book, which neither us us managed beyond the first pages was "Five Red Herrings". It is my last Sayers so I really want to enjoy it!

 

 

I finally finished another book, too.  Dorothy Sayers' Five Red Herrings was not my favorite Lord Peter.  Glad to be done with is.  Next up Have His Carcase.

 

dawn :)

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