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Book a Week in 2013 - week forty three


Robin M
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Happy Sunday, dear hearts!  Today is the start of week 43 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 - sorted books: A while ago I stumbled across artist Nina Katchadourian and her sorted books project.   Since 1993, Nina has been taking from two to five books and creating poems.  In April of this year, they were compiled in Sorted Books, a whimsical collection of witty poems she's created in the past 20 years. She is an artist working in a variety of mediums including photography, video and sound.  She now has me looking at my bookshelves in a whole new way, putting together titles in a variety of ways.  I have way too much time on my hands.   I decided to give it a go, see what kind of incredibly short story I could come up with, using a few titles.  Of course, Melvin had to get in on the picture. 

 

52+books+tell+a+story+two.jpg

 

If you want to play along, use 2 to 6 books and see what you can come up with.

 

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I read 100 Simple Things You Can Do to Prevent Alzheimer's - 3 Stars - easy to read and helpful tips, much of which I already knew anyway, but also a good reminder. 

 

9780316086851.jpg

 

 

MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay Ă¢â‚¬â€œ nothing to write home about

1 Star

Rubbish Ă¢â‚¬â€œ waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if theyĂ¢â‚¬â„¢re that bad.

 

 

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Last night I finished The Chocolate Kiss by Laura Florand; it was a fun read.  Here's a nice review from the Dear Author site.

 

"At La Maison des Sorcieres, the window display is an enchanted forest of sweets, a collection of conical hats delights the eye and the habitues nibble chocolate witches from fanciful mismatched china. While in their tiny blue kitchen, Magalie Chaudron and her two aunts stir wishes into bubbling pots of heavenly chocolat chaud. But no amount of wishing will rid them of interloper Philippe Lyonais, who has the gall to open one of his world famous pastry shops right down the street. Philippe's creations seem to hold a magic of their own, drawing crowds of beautiful women to their little isle amidst the Seine, and tempting even Magalie to venture out of her ivory tower and take a chance, a taste...a kiss."

 

I'd previously read the author's The Chocolate Thief, and I'll be reading her other books, too.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Yesterday I finished Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Quite a read! I'm still not sure what it was about. Very much like Faust set in the context of Soviet Russia, where the Devil cashes in on fashionable literary atheism, petty corruption, and the cynical measures to which the housing shortage drives people. There's a Walpurgisnacht scene in which the participants end up bored and exhausted instead of excitedly debauched; Hell as modern bureaucracy.

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

 

This time at least partial success seemed to be in their grasp. Men at once fanned out to all the rooms and found no one, but on the dining room table were the remains of an obviously recently finished meal and in the drawing room, a huge black cat was perched on the mantelpiece beside a crystal jug, holding a kerosene burner in its front paws.

 

There was a long pause as the men gazed at the cat.

 

"H'm, yes ... that's him," whispered one of them.

 

"I'm doing no harm--I'm not playing games, I'm mending the kerosene burner," said the cat with a hostile scowl, "and I'd better warn you that a cat is an ancient and inviolable animal."

 

"Brilliant performance," whispered a man, and another said loudly and firmly, "All right, you inviolable ventriloquist's dummy, come here!"

 

The net whistled across the room, but the man missed his target and only caught the crystal jug, which broke with a loud crash.

 

"Missed!" howled the cat. "Hurrah!" Setting down the kerosene burner, the cat whipped a Browning automatic from behind its back.

 

----------

 

Need to make more progress on the Arabian Nights. And Zamyatin. And this great volume of Kenneth Grahame essays on his childhood. And the Washington Irving I'm reading to Middle Girl. And....

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My goal for the week was to finish three books.  Mission accomplished!

 

Mysteries are my mind candy.  And while I really prefer mysteries with some complexity, I often seem to pick up some lightweight fluff just to see what an author has done with a premise or a place.  It was setting that led me to read Shooting at Loons by Margaret Maron.  There really isn't much of a mystery to this book which makes it a comfortable cozy for those who like that sort of thing.  What Maron did pull off though (much to my delight) was a fairly good description of the forces at play on the Carolina coast:  commercial fishermen, recreational fishermen, developers, environmentalists.  Groups can become allies on a single issue and combatants in the months that follow.  The book is set on Harker's Island in the early '90's where apparently the locals did eat loons, now a protected species. 

 

There are days when I wonder if I should have become a cultural anthropologist.  Food and textiles both fascinate me--so does pottery for that matter. 

 

The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson) love how food brings people together.  In Hidden Kitchens (stories from an NPR radio feature collected in a book) we read about people like Georgia Gilmore whose kitchen fueled the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama; about NASCAR kitchens; about Winona LaDuke's economic recovery projects on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota centered around wild rice, the Ojibwe mainstay.  Who knew about burgoo (unless you are from Kentucky)?  Sounds a lot like something my Wisconsin mom made:  booyah.

 

I am one of those people who believes that world peace can be obtained via food--not only food in bellies but by cultivating conversation around a good meal. So it is no surprise that my favorite story in the Hidden Kitchens book is a humble one toward the end of the book.  The Ladies Altar Guild of an Episcopal church adopted an immigrant family, the Pouska family from Czechoslovakia.  

 

They found a house for them, furniture, and so forth.  And as a thank-you gift, Mrs. Pouska would come every year, just after dark on December 5th, the eve of St. Nicholas Day.  She would sneak up to the house, and we would hear a loud "boom, boom, boom" on the door.  No matter how fast we dashed, we never saw who delivered the wrapped carton with a return address that simply stated 'Saint Nicholas'.  Inside, there would be a special tin of Czechoslovakian moon cookies and a poem to members of our family.  It was a tradition the Pouska family had brought with them from the outskirts of Prague to our small American town.

 

At Mrs. Pouska's funeral we learned that she had left each member of the Altar Guild the recipe for Czechoslovakian moon cookies in her will.  In my twenty-five years as a teacher, I have told this story each year to my students and given each of them a Czechoslovakian moon cookie on St. Nicholas Day, a day that truly speaks of the generosity from one to another.  Now, when those former students invite us to their weddings, we give them the recipe and a serving tray for Czechoslovakian moon cookies.  From a simple tin of cookies Mrs. Pouska's generosity and thanks has spread from family to family, from teacher to student, and friend to friend, one moon cookie at a time.

 

The moon cookie recipe is then given in the book, something that I will copy before passing this book along to someone else.

 

Micheal Chabon's book of essays, Maps & Legends:  Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands receives a mixed review from me. Some of the essays are simply splendid.  Others--meh. He writes a lot about comics and superheroes--something that just does not resonate with me.  I had to push myself through the essay on Cormac McCarthy.  Is the problem my lack of interest or his lack of salesmanship? 

 

That said, I will recommend that anyone looking for context (Ahoy there Eliana!!) needs to read the essay "Imaginary Homelands" after reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union.  Chabon's novel is set the Yiddish speaking Jewish settlement of Sitka, Alaska, a homeland imagined after Chabon came across a Dover phrase book, Say it in Yiddish.  He reveals the creation of this remarkable imagined setting in the essay.  I loved having a look into the author's thought process.

 

I also recommend the delightful essay "Golems I Have Known, or, Why My Elder Son's Middle Name is Napoleon". Brilliant.

 

Moving on, I aspire to read two books this week:  E.O. Wilson's Letters to a Young Scientist and Wieslaw MyĂ…â€ºliwskiĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s Stone upon Stone, a purchase from Archipelago Books that Stacia brought to our attention.  The latter is a chunkster so we'll see how it goes.

 

 

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Few things I stumbled upon this morning.

 

Christopher Robin friend requests the residence of one hundred acre wood.

 

Project 20 - write a/few/some letters, and place them inside books in libraries / bookstores.

 

You are never alone with a good book campaign - Steimatsky, Israel's oldest bookstore. Here are the original's

 

Scary book find of the day - The Key to Everything by Alex Kimmel available on nook and kindle for .99 cents

 

Cracked and weathered binding, hiding mysteries on pages tied closed by a bloodstained string. A happy young family enchanted by dreams and possibilities. A barren, empty room. A boy with no friends obsessively drawing angles, edges and diagrams. In his debut novel, Alex Kimmell captures a vivid and startling tale of fear. Auden's journey begins when he discovers a curious leather-bound book whose contents will soon endanger his entire family. The pages of this book draw him into a prison that cannot be breached, a place that can only be unlocked with a very special key. In The Key to Everything, fear is explored and heightened through jarring imagery and a terrifying, unique menace, ratcheting up the tension until the novel's gripping climax.

 

 

Last but not least and this will keep you busy for a bit -  English pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenite

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Twice I've clicked on Robin's link to this thread (the link in last week's thread) & twice the board has 'logged me out' & then gives me an error when I try to log back in. Anyone else have this problem? (It's fine when I just click on the link to this thread from the main chat board.)

 

:confused1:

The cover of The Dracula Tape is very cheesy. LOL I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, especially in light of having read Dracula a few weeks ago. (And especially since I didn't see any holes in Stoker's story. :blushing: )

I am still reading The Dracula Tape by Fred Saberhagen.

 

Yeah, I laugh every time I look at the cover. :laugh: Those fake fangs & that the story being told is being 'recorded' on cassette tape give it a cheesy edge for sure. I don't think there are many holes in Stoker's story (I didn't really notice any when I read Dracula, but I don't sit around & mull over it either), but there are maybe some inconsistencies. Plus, this newer version book uses some more modern technology/info (blood typing, for instance) to help make its case for Dracula's version of events (i.e., Van Helsing killed Lucy by giving her blood transfusions from multiple people & that was what weakened & killed her, rather than Dracula's repeated visits/attacks on her).

 

To me, this is kind of like reading Poe's Pym followed by Verne's cleaned-up/explanatory version of Poe's story at a later date. This book is doing a similar thing -- taking the original, weaving lots of the original text in, then 'cleaning up' any of the inconsistencies or weird things to shift the entire perspective of the story, in this case, to Dracula not really being a bad guy & rather misunderstood & maligned by the characters in the original story. I always liked Dracula, so I'm finding this a fun version of the story. :D

 

See? Dracula is not such a bad guy... (from The Dracula Tape)...

Lucy I did not kill. It was not I who hammered the great stake through her heart. My hands did not cut off her lovely head, or stuff her breathless mouth -- that mouth -- with garlic, as if she were a dead pig, pork being made ready for some barbarians' feast. Only reluctantly had I made her a vampire, nor would she ever have become a vampire were it not for the imbecile Van Helsing and his work. Imbecile is one of the most charitable names that I can find for him...

 

And Mina Murray, later Mrs. Jonathan Harker. In classic understatement I proclaim I never meant dear Mina any harm. With these hands I broke the back of her real enemy, the madman Renfield, who would have raped and murdered her. I knew what his intentions were, though the doctors, young Seward and the imbecile, could not seem to fathom them. And when Renfield spelled out to my face what he intended doing to my love... ah, Mina.

 

But that was long ago. She was an old, old woman when she went to her grave in 1967.

 

And all the men on the Demeter. If you have read my enemies' version of events I suppose you will tax me with those sailors' lives as well. Only tell me why, in God's name why, I should have murdered them.... What is it?

 

At this point a man's voice, conditionally identifiable as that of Arthur Harker, utters the one word nothing.

 

But of course. You did not realize that I could speak the name of God. You are victims of superstition, sheer superstition, which is a hideous thing, and very powerful indeed. God and I are old acquaintances. At least, I have been aware of Him for much longer than you have, my friends.

And, in re: to the book The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers...

Smart, different, & detailed sound fabulous... the horror, not so much, but I do want to try it. Thank you for the final review! It reminds me also that I keep meaning to read letters from that circle in that time period... if I can ever escape from the 1930's!

Which letters? I'm sure there are various books of Byron's, M. &/or P. Shelley's letters & such, but I haven't searched yet. Any titles handy for you to recommend?

 

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

My Goodreads Page

My PaperbackSwap Page

 

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 Ă¢â‚¬â€œ 40 that IĂ¢â‚¬â„¢ve read in 2013.

 

41. If on a winterĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s night a traveler by Italo Calvino (5 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe (Italy).

42. They Call Me Naughty Lola: Personal Ads from the London Review of Books, edited by David Rose (2.5 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe (England).

43. The Late Mattia Pascal by Luigi Pirandello (3 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe (Italy).

44. StokerĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s Manuscript by Royce Prouty (4 stars).

45. Captain Alatriste by Arturo PĂƒÂ©rez-Reverte (3 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe (Spain).

46. The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry (4 stars).

47. Second Person Singular by Sayed Kashua (4 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Asia (Israel).

48. The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy (3.5 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe/Asia (Russia).

49. The Book of the Unknown: Tales of the Thirty-Six by Jonathon Keats (3 stars).

50. Borges and the Eternal Orangutans by Luis Fernando Verissimo (5 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ South America (Brazil & Argentina).

 

51. The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allan Poe (4 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Antarctica.

52. Pym by Mat Johnson (3 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Antarctica.

53. Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (5 stars).

54. The Complete Works of Marvin K. Mooney by Christopher Higgs (5 stars).

55. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (3 stars).

56. The ShamanĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s Coat: A Native History of Siberia by Anna Reid (3 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Asia (Siberia).

57. In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires by Raymond T. McNally & Radu Florescu (4 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe (Romania).

58. Remainder by Tom McCarthy (4 stars). Challenge: Dusty.

59. At the Mountains of Madness (radio/audio version) by H.P. Lovecraft (4 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Antarctica.

60. The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner (5 stars).

 

61. Night of My Blood by Kofi Awoonor (3 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Africa (Ghana).

62. A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny (3 stars).

63. Le Sphinx de Glaces by Jules Verne (4 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Antarctica.

64. The Finno-Ugrian Vampire by NoĂƒÂ©mi SzĂƒÂ©csi (3.5 stars). Challenge: Continental Ă¢â‚¬â€œ Europe (Hungary).

65. The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen (3 stars).

66. The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers (4 stars).

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Mainly marking the thread. Nothing finished because of the move. Dc's are basically moved so good start. :)

 

Reading "Heartless" by Gail Carriger. It is very good for being the forth in a series....

 

I have also started the first Dexter thriller. No energy to look up the proper title...only a chapter or two in. Definately good enough to finish. Considering the number of abandoned books for me lately pretty high rating. ;)

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Twice I've clicked on Robin's link to this thread (the link in last week's thread) & twice the board has 'logged me out' & then gives me an error when I try to log back in. Anyone else have this problem? (It's fine when I just click on the link to this thread from the main chat board.)

 

:confused1:

 

 

Yes, just tried it and that was weird. I deleted and redid. Hopefully won't do it anymore.

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Yesterday I finished Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Quite a read! I'm still not sure what it was about. Very much like Faust set in the context of Soviet Russia, where the Devil cashes in on fashionable literary atheism, petty corruption, and the cynical measures to which the housing shortage drives people. There's a Walpurgisnacht scene in which the participants end up bored and exhausted instead of excitedly debauched; Hell as modern bureaucracy.

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

 

This time at least partial success seemed to be in their grasp. Men at once fanned out to all the rooms and found no one, but on the dining room table were the remains of an obviously recently finished meal and in the drawing room, a huge black cat was perched on the mantelpiece beside a crystal jug, holding a kerosene burner in its front paws.

 

There was a long pause as the men gazed at the cat.

 

"H'm, yes ... that's him," whispered one of them.

 

"I'm doing no harm--I'm not playing games, I'm mending the kerosene burner," said the cat with a hostile scowl, "and I'd better warn you that a cat is an ancient and inviolable animal."

 

"Brilliant performance," whispered a man, and another said loudly and firmly, "All right, you inviolable ventriloquist's dummy, come here!"

 

The net whistled across the room, but the man missed his target and only caught the crystal jug, which broke with a loud crash.

 

"Missed!" howled the cat. "Hurrah!" Setting down the kerosene burner, the cat whipped a Browning automatic from behind its back.

 

----------

 

Need to make more progress on the Arabian Nights. And Zamyatin. And this great volume of Kenneth Grahame essays on his childhood. And the Washington Irving I'm reading to Middle Girl. And....

Okay you've sold me.  Added to my wishlist to get hardcover next time I'm at the bookstore, since the only ebook version is in russian.

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I finished Among the Janeites by Deborah Yaffe.   I loved it.   The "Colin Firth wet shirt" thing was mentioned so many times I HAD to watch that version this week.   I've always loved Colin Firth, but I had never seen that version of Pride and Prejudice.  

 

It was an excellent version of P&P, BUT BUT BUT- I do not get the "wet shirt" hysteria!   I rewatched the wet shirt part (I don't know how many times :leaving: ), and even googled trying to figure out what the big deal was.  He jumped in a pond, then he was out of the pond....with a slightly damp shirt and hair.   SO what?   Was it because that was supposed to be his "undies"??  Don't get me wrong, I don't want some big se%y scene in a Jane Austen movie, I'm not interested in it.   And Colin Firth was an absolutely wonderful Mr. Darcy (IMHO), but the shirt part was not that exciting  :lol: .

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Twice I've clicked on Robin's link to this thread (the link in last week's thread) & twice the board has 'logged me out' & then gives me an error when I try to log back in. Anyone else have this problem? (It's fine when I just click on the link to this thread from the main chat board.)

 

:confused1:

 

Yup.  You mean my technological ineptitude is not to blame?

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Last but not least and this will keep you busy for a bit -  English pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenite

 

That was fun, Robin.  Thanks for the link.  I'll send it on to my daughter who is teaching English to children in South Korea.  She was telling us last night that one of her fellow (native English speaking) teachers was asking her about the word 'peruse' saying that she had never seen it.  Since the other teacher was pronouncing it as per-use (akin to perhaps), it took my daughter a moment to realize what word she meant.  Yep, English is one crazy language!

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Haven't checked in the last few weeks, but I've read a few good books.

 

I read A Tale for the Time Being which someone here recommended a month or two ago and enjoyed that--especially when the young Japanese protagonist was speaking. Her diary is found by a woman who lives on an island off Canada--found the chapters concerning her a little less interesting, but still found the book worth reading overall.

 

Also read Paul Tough's How Children Succeed which was mentioned in a thread I think on the General Education board. Excellent book. He makes a strong case that certain character traits (being able to focus, work toward a goal even if the work is boring, etc) predict long term success more accurately than cognitive ability.

 

Read Albert Marrin's Hitler as my treadmill book a few weeks back and learned a lot! Dd will be assigned this when we hit WWII. Am now reading his The Yank's are Coming about WWI. I have his Stalin and his book on the Vietnam war too, so I'll probably be getting to those next.

 

Reading My Antonia aloud to the girls and we're really enjoying that. I thought the lack of much plot would bore them, but they're drawing pictures from the book and enjoying the characters. It hits close to family history for us, so interesting from that point of view too (Bohemian ancestors came to Nebraska before settling in Idaho. Scandinavian ancestors too).

 

I'm getting close to a couple of holds at the library being ready for me, so I'm not jumping into anything else just yet. A Tale for the Time Being and How Children Succeed both came at the same time and were 14 day books. Augh! But I got them done.  Maybe I should break out my scary read on the Kindle--Hound of the Baskervilles--haven't started yet.

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Twice I've clicked on Robin's link to this thread (the link in last week's thread) & twice the board has 'logged me out' & then gives me an error when I try to log back in. Anyone else have this problem? (It's fine when I just click on the link to this thread from the main chat board.)

 

:confused1:

That happened to me too. I ended up doing as you did, just finding it in the chat board. Weird.

 

I finished listening to The Age of Innocence yesterday. So, Newland Archer. I still haven't figured out if he ended up having a happy life or not. Not unhappy I guess, but he apparently just accepted that numb was okay, and probably even normal for his lot.

 

I started another audio book, I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! (Bob Newhart), but it wasn't holding my interest. I'm not going to let it go back to the library yet, since maybe I just wasn't in the right mood. I do like him so that's not the problem. I checked my library website this morning and found Sharp Objects available for download, so I borrowed it right away. I've been reading/listening to lot of literature and serious books that I need a break. I'm cleaning the grout in my tile, which covers much of the public areas of our house, so I need to listen to something that will make me more or less forget how hard the job is.

 

Yesterday I started reading Brain on Fire and am halfway through. I find it fascinating, and while the author isn't a great writer, her story is compelling IMO. It's a short book, under 300 pages, so the fact that I'm already halfway through is no big deal.

 

I read a little more in both The Historian and The Haunting of Hill House and still don't know which one I want to give my attention. If one or the other is supposed to be my October spooky read, I better choose soon.

 

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Reading My Antonia aloud to the girls and we're really enjoying that. I thought the lack of much plot would bore them, but they're drawing pictures from the book and enjoying the characters. It hits close to family history for us, so interesting from that point of view too (Bohemian ancestors came to Nebraska before settling in Idaho. Scandinavian ancestors too).

 

 

 

That was the first Willa Cather book I read, and I loved it. I thought it was beautiful. I love word pictures and she was so good at drawing them.

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I have also started the first Dexter thriller. No energy to look up the proper title...only a chapter or two in. Definately good enough to finish. Considering the number of abandoned books for me lately pretty high rating. ;)

 

Do you watch the show? I tried a year or two ago and just couldn't get into it. I wonder if I'd like the books better. 

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I'm reading Sjon's The Blue Fox and on my nook Thunderbird Falls by (#2 in Walker Paper paranormal series) by C.E. Murphy

 

Cool, a new author for me!

 

After two weeks I finally made my way through Rapture: A Novel of the Fallen by J.R. Ward.   I cannot remember a time in the past when it has taken me so long to read a book.  I liked the rest of the series, but I just. could. not. get into this one, yet I didn't want to skip it.   :confused1:   

 

On to other titles.  :hurray:  I have Inferno by Dan Brown on library loan, and I have Ritual Magic by Eileen Wilks, and One Lucky Vampire by Lynsay Sands loaded onto my kindle.

 

 

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I went away to the beach with a bunch of ladies for the weekend and I forgot my book! I did go thrift store crawling with a couple of the ladies and bought books by Borges and Fromm in a small back room stacked floor to ceiling with an unusually literary assortment of books.

 

I got home this afternoon and was relaxing with The Black Swan that I had left. Here is an other quote from the book:

 

"A novel you like resembles a friend, you accept it read and reread it, getting to know it better. Like a friend, you accept it the way it is; you do not judge it."

 

The Black Swan is not about books at all, but the majority of the author's illustrations and metaphors are.

 

I think it was good to take a break from reading this weekend. I had been feeling stressed about what I wasn't reading or had never read. As soon as I popped on here and started reading this thread, I realized that I had been silly. I am on my own journey not someone else's. We are all unique in our choices.

 

 

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This week I finished:


 


#64 - This is Herman Cain, by Herman Cain. 


 


#65 - Big Cherry Holler (Big Stone Gap Series, Book Two), by Adriana Trigiani.  Really enjoyed this, as I did the first book.  Her characters are so real, and funny, too.  They're endearing, but they're frustrating, too.  She writes so honestly that it is actually at times very sad in a very aching-to-my-very-bones way.  She nails human emotion.


 


Currently reading:


 


#66 - Milk Glass Moon (Big Stone Gap Series, Book Three), by Adriana Trigiani.


 


When I finish this, I will read the fourth and final book in this series.

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Christopher Robin friend requests the residence of one hundred acre wood.

 

:lol:

 

 

Project 20 - write a/few/some letters, and place them inside books in libraries / bookstores.

 

This actually could be quite fun. I love writing letters. Wouldn't that be such a strange & wonderful thing to encounter a letter to you, the reader, lurking in the next used or library book you pick up...?

 

You are never alone with a good book campaign - Steimatsky, Israel's oldest bookstore. Here are the original's

 

Kind of neat (& a little creepy).

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I finished The Golem and the Jinni.  I haven't written my Goodreads review yet, because I have not had time, plus I'm trying to decide what I thought of the book. 

 

I think I would give it between 3 and 4 stars.  I liked the book.  It was an enjoyable read.  The author did a good job on creating the main characters, and even some of the minor characters were well developed.  It was set in the early 1900's in NYC in both the Jewish and Syrian immigrant neighborhoods.  For some reason I don't feel like the writer transported me there.  I don't know why.  Maybe too many of the attitudes were modern.  But still, it was an interesting glimpse into that time and place.

 

The overall story was good.  I enjoyed how it came together in the end, but then I felt like the ending departed from what felt like the main theme of the book.  But a book not ending like I thought it should isn't a reason to not enjoy the book.  And I did love how the writer brought it all together in the end.  Very clever. 

 

The writing was good, just not fabulous (Not Le Quin or Murakami).  But still, it was good writing.

 

I  don't know.  I really did enjoy the book, so maybe that's why I feel it's shortcomings so much.  I felt like it could have been even better.  

 

On to The Kitchen God's Wife

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Well. So far, I've warn this shirt three times and all I've gotten are frowning disapproving glares. Every time I've worn 69 Camaro or Star wars shirt, I get compliments, particularly from guys. :leaving:   Wonder  what folks would say if I wore a Team Dracula shirt?  :lol:

 

 

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Do you watch the show? I tried a year or two ago and just couldn't get into it. I wonder if I'd like the books better.

I watch the show but am not a serious fan. Just started fourth season and I think they are making season eight now. I think I like it because it is different and somewhat (now in forth season not so much) unpredictable. I normally have a hard time with my books as TV shows but this seems to be acceptable. Maybe because I "like" the actors so am OK with their images in my book.

 

The book seems very like the show thus far. I will let you know my opinion closer to the end.

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Finished up a few things and trying to stay motivated. Trying out Stiff (the corpse book by Mary Roach), We Need To Talk About Kevin, Surprised by Oxford, and When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson. So far I'm not enjoying We Need To Talk About Kevin. I just don't like the narrator. Out it goes. I like the dry humor of Stiff, but I think its a little early for me. The body stuff doesn't bother me but the medical history makes me angry. Loving Surprised by Oxford and When I Was a Child I Read Books. I was surprised I enjoyed Robinson's book.. I didn't think I'd have the concentration for her right now. While I think she simplifies when it works best for her argument, I find her very interesting and amusing. I love the quotes both she and Carolyn Weber are using. If I can keep focused I think these will be good growing books for me. 

 

Top Ten *
Best of the Year **

73. The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson~science fiction, relationships, future influencing the past

72. Saving Daylight by Jim Harrison~poetry, Montana, outdoors

71. The Big Year: a Tale of Man, Nature, and a Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik~bird watching, North America, life lists

70. Howl's Moving Castle by Dianne Wynne Jones~youth novel, magic, modern fairy tale. 

69. My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business by Dick Van Dyke~non-fiction, memoir, television. 

68. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling~fantasy, wizards, series. *

67. I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This by Bob Newhart~non-fiction, memoir, comedy.

66. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling~fantasy, wizards, series. 

65. Alice on the Line by Doris and Douglas Lockwood~non-fiction, memoir, central Australia, early 20th century. 

64. The Hustler by Walter Tevis~pool sharks, winners vs. losers, testing your gift. *

55. Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card~time travel, history correction, New World. 

54. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling~youth fiction, fantasy, wizards. 

53. The Adderall Diaries: a Memoir by Stephen Elliot~memoir, murder, dysfunction. 

50. The House by the Sea by May Sarton~journal, old age.  (Dewey Decimal challenge: 800s)

47. Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodriquez~memoir, Afganistan, women. 

39. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King (Fiction Genre challenge: Mystery)

38  The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn~non-fiction, cooking, teaching, how people eat.

37. The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan~fiction, France, ballet, Degas. 

35. The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig~non-fiction, WWII, Siberia. * 

34. Old Man's War by John Scalzi~science fiction, war, future. 

32. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger~youth fiction, steampunk, school for female assassins.

28. Benediction by Kent Haruf~small town, characterization, cancer. *

21. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz~supernatural thriller, ghosts *
20. The Story of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang~science fiction, short stories (Fiction genre challenge: short stories) **
19. Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols~memoir, gardening, humor (Dewey Decimal Challenge, 600s)
17. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout~fiction, short stories, aging. 
14. The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis~fiction, coming of age, chess *
11. Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish~autobiography, Depression, family (Dewey Decimal Challenge, 900s) *
9. The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman~fiction, family drama, Australia, miscarriage. (Continental Challenge: Australia) 
7. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson~satire, American dream, drug trip. (Dewey Decimal Challenge, 000s)
6. Soulless by Gail Carriger~steampunk, vampires, werewolves, Victoriana. (Fiction genre challenge: Fantasy)
5. Away by Jane Urquhart~Ireland, Canada, emigration, magical realism, family saga. (Continental Challenge: North America/Canada) 
4. Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim~autobiography, Germany pre-WWI, gardening, women's roles

 

Working on: 

The French Lieutenant's Woman (Fowles)

 
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As soon as I popped on here and started reading this thread, I realized that I had been silly. I am on my own journey not someone else's. We are all unique in our choices.

:iagree:

Is the link from week 42 working now for everyone or still signing you out????

It's working for me now....

I finished The Golem and the Jinni. I haven't written my Goodreads review yet, because I have not had time, plus I'm trying to decide what I thought of the book.

 

I think I would give it between 3 and 4 stars. I liked the book. It was an enjoyable read. The author did a good job on creating the main characters, and even some of the minor characters were well developed. It was set in the early 1900's in NYC in both the Jewish and Syrian immigrant neighborhoods. For some reason I don't feel like the writer transported me there. I don't know why. Maybe too many of the attitudes were modern. But still, it was an interesting glimpse into that time and place.

 

The overall story was good. I enjoyed how it came together in the end, but then I felt like the ending departed from what felt like the main theme of the book. But a book not ending like I thought it should isn't a reason to not enjoy the book. And I did love how the writer brought it all together in the end. Very clever.

 

The writing was good, just not fabulous (Not Le Quin or Murakami). But still, it was good writing.

 

I don't know. I really did enjoy the book, so maybe that's why I feel it's shortcomings so much. I felt like it could have been even better.

Thanks for your review on this one. Most reviews I've heard so far had been rave reviews, so yours is refreshing in that it's a little more balanced. I had actually started reading the book a little bit when I first got it from the library. (I got to the part where the ship reaches NYC, so I had barely started, but I just wasn't feeling pulled in & wasn't in the mood for it at the time.) I will have to try it later, though.

Well. So far, I've warn this shirt three times and all I've gotten are frowning disapproving glares. Every time I've worn 69 Camaro or Star wars shirt, I get compliments, particularly from guys. :leaving: Wonder what folks would say if I wore a Team Dracula shirt? :lol:

When I've worn mine, I've either gotten compliments or nobody seems to notice it. Maybe you're consorting with the wrong types if they're disapproving of Lovecraft & Poe, lol. Maybe they're just thinking, "Nevermore." ;) :001_tt2: (Bet you'll laugh when you get your next disapproving glare & then you think of the person croaking, "Nevermore!") They probably wouldn't like team Dracula any better either....

 

I need a team Dracula shirt, I think. :D

 

Speaking of Poe, I put the Poe infinity scarf on my Christmas list. LOL. (I really like their Sherlock one too.) Robin, were you the one who originally showed us these printed scarves?

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I wondered about the blood type during the transfusions, too.  LOL

 

I have had a wacky week, so I haven't gotten much reading done.  I decided to put Vlad aside for now, and dive into House of Leaves.  I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but I am enjoying the two story lines so far.  I kinda wish the Navidson story line would pick up the pace a little, but I think it is Johnny Truant's story that is getting in the way of it that is the problem.  Hopefully, this week will be better for reading.

 

The List so Far:

 

51. The Historian

50. Dracula

49. And Then There Were None                                                                                                      23. This Book is Full of Spiders

48. The Dyslexic Advantage                                                                                                             22. Little House on the Prairie

47. Angelmaker                                                                                                                                21.  Evolutionism and Creationism

46. Voyager                                                                                                                                     20.  John Dies at the End

45. Dragonfly in Amber                                                                                                                   19.  Much Ado About Nothing

44. By Reason of Insanity                                                                                                                18.  Little House in the Big Woods

43. Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu                         17.  Hooked
42. The Girl Who Chased the Moon                                                                                                16.  Anne of the Island
41. The Sugar Queen                                                                                                                     15.  Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen
40. 1Q84                                                                                                                                         14.  Anne of Avonlea
39. The Long Winter                                                                                                                       13.  Anne of Green Gables
38. Warm Bodies                                                                                                                             12.  The Invention of Hugo Cabret
37. Garden Spells                                                                                                                           11.  The Swiss Family Robinson
36. The Peach Keeper                                                                                                                    10.  Little Women
35. The Memory Keeper's Daughter                                                                                                  9.  Why We Get Fat
34. The First Four Years                                                                                                                    8.  The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye
33. These Happy Golden Years                                                                                                        7.  Outlander
32. Little Town on the Prairie                                                                                                            6.  The New Atkins for a New You
31. Amglish, in Like, Ten Easy Lessons: A Celebration of the New World Lingo                                5.  A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows
30. The Call of the Wild                                                                                                                    4.  Liberty and Tyranny
29. By the Shores of Silver Lake                                                                                                        3.  Corelli's Mandolin
28. Pippi Longstocking                                                                                                                      2.  The Neverending Story
27. On the Banks of Plum Creek                                                                                                        1.  The Hobbit
26. Hiroshima
25. Farmer Boy
24. 1984

 

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52 books blog - sorted books: A while ago I stumbled across artist Nina Katchadourian and her sorted books project.   Since 1993, Nina has been taking from two to five books and creating poems.  In April of this year, they were compiled in Sorted Books, a whimsical collection of witty poems she's created in the past 20 years. She is an artist working in a variety of mediums including photography, video and sound.  She now has me looking at my bookshelves in a whole new way, putting together titles in a variety of ways.  I have way too much time on my hands.   I decided to give it a go, see what kind of incredibly short story I could come up with, using a few titles.  Of course, Melvin had to get in on the picture. 

 

52+books+tell+a+story+two.jpg

 

If you want to play along, use 2 to 6 books and see what you can come up with.

 

Oh yeah, I did a different one last week & forgot to post it....

 

 

 

 

 

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I love stumbling upon literary connections including the odd little connections to conversations from this thread.  I discovered, while reading a wikipedia article on Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, that the author Paul Theroux writes in The Old Patagonian Express about reading aloud a few chapters of Pym to Jorge Luis Borges!  Borges who has been a topic of conversation among a few of you this year.  I pulled out my copy of Theroux's book and found the chapter that describes the several evenings they spent together with Theroux reading aloud mostly poetry -- much of it by Kipling --  and Borges interjecting with "beautiful!  You can't say that in Spanish!"  The poetry makes me think of Eliana and the comment about "you can't say that in Spanish"  is a line that has stuck with me for years, though I had forgotten the source.  I've been wondering, while reading The Shadow of the Wind, just what the original Spanish is like (the English translation is just lovely) when I had in my mind "you can't say that in Spanish!"  I realize now, in rereading this chapter that Borges was referring to the ease we have in English creating rich by spare poetic lines by creating compounds such as "world-weary flesh".  He didn't mean Spanish was incapable of being descriptive!

 

I thought, too, that you ladies would enjoy this description of Borges' library:

 

"The books were a mixed lot.  One corner was mostly, Everyman editions, the classics in English translation -- Homer, Dante, Virgil. There were shelves of poetry in no particular order -- Tennyson and e e cummings, Byron, Poe, Wordsworth and Hardy.  There were reference books, Harvey's English Literature, The Oxford Book of Quotations, various dictionaries ...  and an old leather bound encyclopedia.  They were not fine editions; the spines were worn, the cloth had faded; but they had the look of having been read.  They were well thumbed, they sprouted paper page markers.  Reading alters the appearance of a book.  Once it has been read it never looks the same again, and people leave an individual imprint on a book they have read.  One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made the book yours."  

 

This chapter is near the end of Theroux's book.  It isn't quite worth the slog through the rest of the book to get there -- I prefer some of his other travel books instead -- but it is a terrific chapter.  I'm inspired to finally read some Borges and my reluctance to read poetry for pleasure has been weakened a bit more!

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Last week I completed The Church Planting Wife (finally got the name of it correct! lol) and I mentioned needing a break so instead of continuing The Iliad I read The Weapon of Prayer by E. M. Bounds, a refreshing and profitable read, and The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Does Oscar Wilde count since it was a play and not a novel? I only read it because the name has been stuck in my head for years completely detached from any other detail or content. Why, I have no idea. It was tormenting. Now I'm looking forward to watching the movie (does anyone know if the old version is close to the original play? I read that stuff was added to the newer version). Anyway, I was reading parts from it to DH and even he was cracking up.

 

Speaking of DH, he's been reading through the works of Lovecraft which is tempting me but instead this week I pulled out a book I started a long time ago but never finished - Killing Fields, Living Fields, "an unfinished portrait of the Cambodian church". It's been rough at times and I stopped reading for a while. I had just reached 1975 (during the Khmer Rouge) and had been reading about people reaching the point of such desperation so as to be cannibalizing family members while, in another book I was reading called No Regrets (the homeschooling biography by Swann) I had also reached 1975 and the author was sharing in such vivid detail her beautiful, warm memories of family tradition and specific celebrations. The stark contrast of events happening on opposite sides of the globe in the same year just shook something in my soul and I had not picked up either book since - not intentionally, just that the I got stuck on that reality and had not been able to bring myself to pass on by it.

 

I have continued on with The Iliad. I hope to finish at least one of these two books this week. Reading with you ladies has been encouraging but it is doing nothing to shorten my "to read" list.

 

 

Edited to break up extremely long run-on sentence.

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The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson) love how food brings people together.  In Hidden Kitchens (stories from an NPR radio feature collected in a book) we read about people like Georgia Gilmore whose kitchen fueled the civil rights movement in Montgomery, Alabama; about NASCAR kitchens; about Winona LaDuke's economic recovery projects on the White Earth Indian Reservation in Minnesota centered around wild rice, the Ojibwe mainstay.  Who knew about burgoo (unless you are from Kentucky)?  Sounds a lot like something my Wisconsin mom made:  booyah.

 

I am one of those people who believes that world peace can be obtained via food--not only food in bellies but by cultivating conversation around a good meal. So it is no surprise that my favorite story in the Hidden Kitchens book is a humble one toward the end of the book.  The Ladies Altar Guild of an Episcopal church adopted an immigrant family, the Pouska family from Czechoslovakia.  

 

 

*sigh* So quote-able.  :001_tt1:

 

 

 

 

I'm still trudging through the first world war. I'm about a third of the way through.

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I am still working through Dracula, but I am already almost a full week behind on my Coursera reading.  Eeek!  That doesn't bode well for the rest of the course.  I am out of practice at being a student   ;)

 

Dd gave me a very kind little lecture that it was OK for me just to read what interested me for this course over the weekend. I felt a bit guilty but have never liked Alice in Wonderland and really didn't want to read it another time. Dd is loving it which is great and doesn't need me to read it all which is even better! :) I finished Dracula and plan to read Frankenstein soon....trying very hard to just read things I want to read for awhile.

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I agree wholeheartedly!!  And maybe your dd can give me a pass on the assigned reading as well   ;)

Dd said you can skip Alice and any others since you don't want a certificate. She does think you (and everyone) should read Dracula because it is really really good! Definately my daughter! :lol:

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Dd said you can skip Alice and any others since you don't want a certificate. She does think you (and everyone) should read Dracula because it is really really good! Definately my daughter! :lol:

 

What does she say about Frankenstein? :) I've finished Dracula, and I really liked it, but I got a bit spooked in the middle with the whole inmate of the asylum part. I'm trying to decide if I will start reading Frankenstein this week or next week, because my dh is out of town this week. Yes, I'm easily spooked  :blush: .

 

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