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Book a Week in 2014 - BW28


Robin M
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I have really good memories of finding Rascal at my grandmother's house on a closet floor. My grandmother didn't usually have books in her house (she was a devoted magazine reader) but there it was looking so beat up that I was sure my uncles left it behind when they left home. Later it disappeared and I have no idea how it got there or why it left. 

 

I swallowed it up in one night. Imagine my great surprise and delight...Rascal took place...in real life...on the other side of Lake Koshkonong from my grandfather's house (he grew up there)! The actions in the story would have taken place about the time my grandfather was born. Sterling North is the same age as my grandfather's oldest brother Pearson. 

 

It was hard not to pretend that Sterling North is my great-uncle. 

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Drum roll please.....

 

 

I caught up in reading Psalms. Now I am back on track.

 

This was not an easy feat. I was supposed to be at Psalm 104 and I was only on Psalm 50. I thought I'd never catch up. I did.

 

Sheer willpower right there, ladies.

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I have really good memories of finding Rascal at my grandmother's house on a closet floor. My grandmother didn't usually have books in her house (she was a devoted magazine reader) but there it was looking so beat up that I was sure my uncles left it behind when they left home. Later it disappeared and I have no idea how it got there or why it left. 

 

I swallowed it up in one night. Imagine my great surprise and delight...Rascal took place...in real life...on the other side of Lake Koshkonong from my grandfather's house (he grew up there)! The actions in the story would have taken place about the time my grandfather was born. Sterling North is the same age as my grandfather's oldest brother Pearson. 

 

It was hard not to pretend that Sterling North is my great-uncle. 

 

What a special story, Tam.  It is so cool that your grandfather grew up there!!  

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I have really good memories of finding Rascal at my grandmother's house on a closet floor. My grandmother didn't usually have books in her house (she was a devoted magazine reader) but there it was looking so beat up that I was sure my uncles left it behind when they left home. Later it disappeared and I have no idea how it got there or why it left. 

 

I swallowed it up in one night. Imagine my great surprise and delight...Rascal took place...in real life...on the other side of Lake Koshkonong from my grandfather's house (he grew up there)! The actions in the story would have taken place about the time my grandfather was born. Sterling North is the same age as my grandfather's oldest brother Pearson. 

 

It was hard not to pretend that Sterling North is my great-uncle. 

 

Gracious.  Right on the other side of the lake?  Why on earth wouldn't you pretend he was?  

 

(Personally, I totally claim all sorts of completely preposterous relatives.   :laugh:   Isn't that what the DNA investigations are showing anyway?  That we all pretty much converge as recently as 6-8 generations back?)

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Drum roll please.....

 

 

I caught up in reading Psalms. Now I am back on track.

 

This was not an easy feat. I was supposed to be at Psalm 104 and I was only on Psalm 50. I thought I'd never catch up. I did.

 

Sheer willpower right there, ladies.

 

Yeah, well, don't peek at 119.  

 

 

 

 

 

(I think of it as "Heartbreak Hill," on the marathon....) 

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Add me to the list of 'Mixed Up Files' lovers. Ds read it and enjoyed it but not with the same fervor I did at his age. After looking at 'Jonathan Strange' I actually think ds might prefer this book over me. For those who've read it, appropriate for a tween? While looking through 'Strange' I followed a link to another of her books, 'The Ladies of Grace Adieu'. This, I think, will go on the tbr list for my 5/5 fairy tale section. Look at this intriguing beginning...

 

ABOVE ALL REMEMBER this: that magic belongs as much to the heart as to the head and everything which is done, should be done from love or joy or righteous anger.

 

And if we honour this principle we shall discover that our magic is much greater than all the sum of all the spells that were ever taught. Then magic is to us as flight is to the birds, because then our magic comes from the dark and dreaming heart, just as the flight of a bird comes from the heart. And we will feel the same joy in performing that magic that the bird feels as it casts itself into the void and we will know that magic is part of what a man is, just as flight is part of what a bird is.

 

Let's see, what else? 'Stuart Little'...enjoyed this as a child but I think I preferred 'Charlotte's Web'. As an adult my favorite of the three is 'Trumpet of the Swans'. In current reading...I'm halfway through 'The Golem and the Jinni'. This is an absorbing read. Ds and I are keeping pace with each other which is fun. E Nesbitt...I read only 'The Railway Children' as child but I remember enjoying it. Ds and I tried 'Five Children and It' several years ago but neither of us could really find our way into it and eventually we abandoned it.

 

Mumto2, (btw your username has been added to my kindle fire dictionary so I can swipe instead of type your name :D ) I'm intrigued by the classification of 'mood altering' for 'ICTC' What other books fall under that category in your system?

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I have really good memories of finding Rascal at my grandmother's house on a closet floor. My grandmother didn't usually have books in her house (she was a devoted magazine reader) but there it was looking so beat up that I was sure my uncles left it behind when they left home. Later it disappeared and I have no idea how it got there or why it left.

 

I swallowed it up in one night. Imagine my great surprise and delight...Rascal took place...in real life...on the other side of Lake Koshkonong from my grandfather's house (he grew up there)! The actions in the story would have taken place about the time my grandfather was born. Sterling North is the same age as my grandfather's oldest brother Pearson.

 

It was hard not to pretend that Sterling North is my great-uncle.

I went on a little journey with this post, Tam.
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So the author of a magazine article "How to Run with the Bulls" and the book Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls Of Pamplona, was gored today.  Well, he is surviving, having undergone surgery.  His co-author of the book reports "(he) seemed okay, indeed happy given the amount of pain killers he was on.â€

 

 

 

 

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I just know you all want to add more books to your wishlist so here is the Millions list of Anticipated releases for the 2nd half of the year.

 

:001_tt1:  Thanks, Robin!

 

Great list. There are some on there I've already been anticipating....

  • Already have California by Edan Lepucki on the way to me (from Powell's). Not sure it will be my kind of story, but I wanted to participate in Colbert's challenge to pre-order it from Powell's (or other indie bookstore) rather than amazon.
  • Even though I don't always like re-reading authors too closely together (12 years pause between an author's books sounds about right to me ;) :laugh: ), I totally am looking forward to reading new ones by Nick Harkaway, Haruki Murakami, David Mitchell, Ned Baumann, José Saramago, & Ismail Kadare.
  • There are LOTS on this list that look great -- so happy to look forward to some new authors to explore!

:hurray:

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So the author of a magazine article "How to Run with the Bulls" and the book Fiesta: How To Survive The Bulls Of Pamplona, was gored today.  Well, he is surviving, having undergone surgery.  His co-author of the book reports "(he) seemed okay, indeed happy given the amount of pain killers he was on.â€

 

I won't actually write what I think about bull runs or bull fights or what I think about the people who participate. I suppose you can guess.

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Shukriyya-- You sent me back down to the library, actually just in the door on our way to the Garden Center, to look at the mood boosting books.  There were others but the core group comes from this challenge apparently http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/tips/reading-well-mood-boosting-books-list.html.  Not sure what it says about me but I haven't read a single book on this list or on the carousel they are keeping the books on. 

 

I am only 30 percent through Jonathan Strange but I think your son probably would love it.  It starts in York with some fabulous descriptions of the Cathedral and the statues in the Cathedral.  I loved that part.  So far nothing I would I a problem with for the dc's but I will pay better attention now that I know you are interested for your ds.  It is long so I wasn't paying close attention for dd.  Her list of must reads is getting long so I am trying to share shorter extras with her not almost 1000 page ones!

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Shukriyya-- You sent me back down to the library, actually just in the door on our way to the Garden Center, to look at the mood boosting books.  There were others but the core group comes from this challenge apparently http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/tips/reading-well-mood-boosting-books-list.html.  Not sure what it says about me but I haven't read a single book on this list or on the carousel they are keeping the books on. 

 

I am only 30 percent through Jonathan Strange but I think your son probably would love it.  It starts in York with some fabulous descriptions of the Cathedral and the statues in the Cathedral.  I loved that part.  So far nothing I would I a problem with for the dc's but I will pay better attention now that I know you are interested for your ds.  It is long so I wasn't paying close attention for dd.  Her list of must reads is getting long so I am trying to share shorter extras with her not almost 1000 page ones!

 

Interesting list. I've read The Enchanted April on that list -- a charming, sweet book. Because it's an older book, I know you can find free kindle copies out there.

 

I also tried The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry but couldn't get into it & ended up abandoning it. (Sorry, Julia!)

 

Just got back from the library & now have a copy of Johnathan Strange in hand!

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Shukriyya-- You sent me back down to the library, actually just in the door on our way to the Garden Center, to look at the mood boosting books.  There were others but the core group comes from this challenge apparently http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/tips/reading-well-mood-boosting-books-list.html.  Not sure what it says about me but I haven't read a single book on this list or on the carousel they are keeping the books on. 

 

I am only 30 percent through Jonathan Strange but I think your son probably would love it.  It starts in York with some fabulous descriptions of the Cathedral and the statues in the Cathedral.  I loved that part.  So far nothing I would I a problem with for the dc's but I will pay better attention now that I know you are interested for your ds.  It is long so I wasn't paying close attention for dd.  Her list of must reads is getting long so I am trying to share shorter extras with her not almost 1000 page ones!

 

On mumto2's carousel is Various Pets Alive and Dead which I need to put on my list.  I loved Marina Lewycka's first novel, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian as well as her second book Two Caravans.  Her third and her fourth await!

 

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I finished Spotted Horses. It is the kind of story that worms its way into my gut and makes me feel like I have indigestion. The blurb on the back of the book calls it "hilarious." Yeah. If you think living with injustice all around you is hilarious. Is cheating, lying, cruelty to animals,  and insensitivity funny? Please tell me that was not the effect the author was going for.

 

 

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Shukriyya-- You sent me back down to the library, actually just in the door on our way to the Garden Center, to look at the mood boosting books.  There were others but the core group comes from this challenge apparently http://readingagency.org.uk/adults/tips/reading-well-mood-boosting-books-list.html.  Not sure what it says about me but I haven't read a single book on this list or on the carousel they are keeping the books on. 

 

What a peculiar list. I can't say I see an obvious theme in it. Apart from ICTC the other books I recognize are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which I started and abandoned a couple of years ago, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which I have looked at from time to time but have always bypassed due to lack of interest, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend which I remember coming out to lots of acclaim, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim which I saw as a film years ago and didn't realize was a book first. It's available free on kindle so I've just downloaded it, thank you! Lastly The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce which, as Stacia did, I must apologize, Prairiegirl, but I couldn't find my way into this one at all and happily left Harold somewhere along the M-5 to continue on without me.

 

 

 

I am only 30 percent through Jonathan Strange but I think your son probably would love it.  It starts in York with some fabulous descriptions of the Cathedral and the statues in the Cathedral.  I loved that part.  So far nothing I would I a problem with for the dc's but I will pay better attention now that I know you are interested for your ds.  It is long so I wasn't paying close attention for dd.  Her list of must reads is getting long so I am trying to share shorter extras with her not almost 1000 page ones!

Thank you! I shared the premise with ds and he's intrigued so that's a possibility to go onto the kindle.

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What a peculiar list. I can't say I see an obvious theme in it. Apart from ICTC the other books I recognize are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which I started and abandoned a couple of years ago, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which I have looked at from time to time but have always bypassed due to lack of interest, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend which I remember coming out to lots of acclaim, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim which I saw as a film years ago and didn't realize was a book first. It's available free on kindle so I've just downloaded it, thank you! Lastly The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce which, as Stacia did, I must apologize, Prairiegirl, but I couldn't find my way into this one at all and happily left Harold somewhere along the M-5 to continue on without me.

 

I just put The Enchanted April on my kindle.  Thank you!

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Just dropping in quick to give an update on what I've read:

 

Chocolat- Sadly, I prefer the movie to the book.  The polarization of Vivianne and the priest is cute in the movie.  In the book, their polarizing views irked me and I found myself skimming the priest's inclusions as rapidly as possible.  I do think this author does well with imagery.

 

I finished listening to "Surprised by Joy" and listened to the last couple of chapters over and over and over again....

 

"The Lost World of Genesis" presents an interpretation of Genesis 1 as an establishment of functions and examines/refutes other interpretations.  It's well written and very dry.  Beth Moore's "The Patriarchs" is a workbookish Bible study for Genesis that was loaned to me and is not dry.  I had fun with it.  I hadn't read anything by Beth Moore before.

 

I also read the Epic of Gilgamesh..... I like the kid's version better.... :leaving: 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Gilgamesh-King-The-Trilogy/dp/0887764371/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1404952661&sr=8-11&keywords=epic+of+gilgamesh

http://www.amazon.com/The-Revenge-Ishtar-Gilgamesh-Trilogy/dp/0887764363/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Quest-Gilgamesh-Trilogy/dp/0887763804/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y

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I brought home the book Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik today for my husband; he did some reading in it and says that it's quite engaging.  He shared the snippet that the Romans were the first (known) to make concrete and that the dome on the Pantheon is made of concrete and still standing after 2000 years. 

 

"An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science

 

Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally-renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world. In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly examines the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the most astounding histories and marvelous scientific breakthroughs in the material world, including:

 
  • The imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from execution by creating the first European porcelain.
  •  
  • The hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond.
  • Graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in existence—only a single atom thick—that could be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch.

 

From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

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Just finished Lexicon by Max Barry. I was looking for a quick and exciting summer read and I got what I paid for thanks to recommendations here.

 

Also finished the audio version of Making Habits, Breaking Habits: Why We Do Things, Why We Don't, and How to Make any Change Stick by Jeremy Dean. This gave me some great new insights on habits and some rabbit trails I wasn't expecting such as how habit affects creativity. I didn't realize how deeply ingrained some of our habits are.

 

Not sure what I'll start next but I know The Faith Club is waiting for me at the library.

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Those Ludmila Zeman books are just lovely, and the illustrations are great.  I also read Geraldine McCaughrean's version with each of my kids in turn, also terrific for a slightly older audience. 

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I brought home the book Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik today for my husband; he did some reading in it and says that it's quite engaging.  He shared the snippet that the Romans were the first (known) to make concrete and that the dome on the Pantheon is made of concrete and still standing after 2000 years. 

 

"An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science

 

Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally-renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world. In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly examines the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the most astounding histories and marvelous scientific breakthroughs in the material world, including:

 
  • The imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from execution by creating the first European porcelain.
  •  
  • The hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond.
  • Graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in existence—only a single atom thick—that could be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch.

 

From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Thank you -- That one is perfect for ds and my other library has it!  

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I took a break from Jonathan Strange to read a thriller with a long wait list last night called Keep Your Friends Close by Paula Daily. What can I say other than there was no choice but to stay up and finish the book.  The pacing was everything.  It would make a great Fatal Attraction type movie I think. http://ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/blog-tour-paula-daly-keep-your-friends-close-reviewextract/  is a good reveiw without any real spoilers.  A quick summary a woman is entertaining her best friend when she received a phone call that her teen dd is critically ill and hospitalized in another country and leaves the best friend to care for her husband and other dd.  When she returns a week later she is no longer needed,  her friend has replaced her........after that it becomes quite a ride.  Some of it a bit too much but enough great stuff to keep me reading.  

 

ETA. I just went back to that website and have been looking at this linkhttp://ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/the-guardian-1000-novels-everyone-must-read-crime-novels/ of the 1000 best crime novels.  I haven't read nearly as many as I would have expected.  Some like Tartt's Secret History surprised me mainly because I haven't read it and probably would have if I had realized it was a crime novel. :lol:

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ETA. I just went back to that website and have been looking at this linkhttp://ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/the-guardian-1000-novels-everyone-must-read-crime-novels/ of the 1000 best crime novels.  I haven't read nearly as many as I would have expected.  Some like Tartt's Secret History surprised me mainly because I haven't read it and probably would have if I had realized it was a crime novel. :lol:

 

Well that list should keep mumto2 busy for the rest of the month.  :lol:

 

The Siege by Helen Dunmore is an absolutely remarkable book.  There is a level of realism that I have only found in works by Eastern/Middle European authors regarding how every day people survived WWII.  I must confess that I knew little of the Siege of Leningrad prior to read Dunmore's book which led to some Internet rabbit trails.  But frankly I am not interested in military strategy or the history of bureaucracy.  The siege led to the death of 1.5 million people. Those who survived did so because of sheer will and resorting to eating things like wallpaper paste.  (Why in my Coldwar childhood did I not learn about this?)

 

Dunmore's novel is the story of a young woman trying to keep her young brother alive while watching the decline of her father and falling in love with a doctor who diagnoses diseases among his patients but knows that starvation is the root cause of their illnesses.  This is a powerful and beautifully written book.

 

 

 

 

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The Siege by Helen Dunmore is an absolutely remarkable book.  There is a level of realism that I have only found in works by Eastern/Middle European authors regarding how every day people survived WWII.  I must confess that I knew little of the Siege of Leningrad prior to read Dunmore's book which led to some Internet rabbit trails.  But frankly I am not interested in military strategy or the history of bureaucracy.  The siege led to the death of 1.5 million people. Those who survived did so because of sheer will and resorting to eating things like wallpaper paste.  (Why in my Coldwar childhood did I not learn about this?)

 

Dunmore's novel is the story of a young woman trying to keep her young brother alive while watching the decline of her father and falling in love with a doctor who diagnoses diseases among his patients but knows that starvation is the root cause of their illnesses.  This is a powerful and beautifully written book.

 

Yes -- I read this for a book group when it first came out years ago and it is still so vivid in my mind.  War narrative from a woman's perspective indeed... and women's experience as part of the human experience... trying to extract enough calories to survive by boiling down wallpaper and shoe leather, while feeding the furniture into the fire piece by piece to survive the cold.  Shudder. 

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I also tried The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry but couldn't get into it & ended up abandoning it. (Sorry, Julia!)

 

Just got back from the library & now have a copy of Johnathan Strange in hand!

 

 

What a peculiar list. I can't say I see an obvious theme in it. Apart from ICTC the other books I recognize are The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows which I started and abandoned a couple of years ago, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which I have looked at from time to time but have always bypassed due to lack of interest, The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend which I remember coming out to lots of acclaim, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim which I saw as a film years ago and didn't realize was a book first. It's available free on kindle so I've just downloaded it, thank you! Lastly The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce which, as Stacia did, I must apologize, Prairiegirl, but I couldn't find my way into this one at all and happily left Harold somewhere along the M-5 to continue on without me.

 

 

Thank you! I shared the premise with ds and he's intrigued so that's a possibility to go onto the kindle.

 

lol    No apologies needed.  I think the reason why books sometimes resonate with us relates to what we are experiencing in our personal lives at the time.  That is why Harold has stuck with me.   Another book that has stuck with me is Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley.  Maybe I just like books in which the protagonist goes on a quest  as Parnassus is similar to Harold in that way.

 

I didn't like Guernsey either.  I wish I hadn't  finished it but for some  reason I felt obligated to.  I haven't read The Help and have no intention to either.  I think there was just too much hype with that book and the hype always seems to ruin a book for me.  I have such high expectations for the book due to the hype that the poor book just doesn't  have a chance.  Code Name Verity was another book that just couldn't  reach the expectation hype.  I finished that one, too.  I was hoping that there was something going to happen at the end that would redeem the book.  Nope.

 

I finished Parnassus on Wheels  earlier in the week and have now started   The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson.  I'm having a difficult time getting into it. 

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I brought home the book Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik today for my husband; he did some reading in it and says that it's quite engaging. He shared the snippet that the Romans were the first (known) to make concrete and that the dome on the Pantheon is made of concrete and still standing after 2000 years.

 

"An eye-opening adventure deep inside the everyday materials that surround us, packed with surprising stories and fascinating science

 

Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? Why does a paper clip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does? These are the sorts of questions that Mark Miodownik is constantly asking himself. A globally-renowned materials scientist, Miodownik has spent his life exploring objects as ordinary as an envelope and as unexpected as concrete cloth, uncovering the fascinating secrets that hold together our physical world. In Stuff Matters, Miodownik entertainingly examines the materials he encounters in a typical morning, from the steel in his razor and the graphite in his pencil to the foam in his sneakers and the concrete in a nearby skyscraper. He offers a compendium of the most astounding histories and marvelous scientific breakthroughs in the material world, including:

 

 

 

 

  • The imprisoned alchemist who saved himself from execution by creating the first European porcelain.
  • The hidden gem of the Milky Way, a planet five times the size of Earth, made entirely of diamond.
  • Graphene, the thinnest, strongest, stiffest material in existence—only a single atom thick—that could be used to make entire buildings sensitive to touch.

From the teacup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, our lives are overflowing with materials. Full of enthralling tales of the miracles of engineering that permeate our lives, Stuff Matters will make you see stuff in a whole new way."

 

Regards,

Kareni</p>

Another thanks to Kareni for this. Like Mumto2, I've put this on the tbr list for ds. It'll be coming out in audio book form soon and looks like it would lend itself well to that format.

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Another book that has stuck with me is Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. Maybe I just like books in which the protagonist goes on a quest as Parnassus is similar to Harold in that way.

This is available on kindle for .99¢. It might be of interest to folks. Written in the very early 1900s it's about a fictional traveling book-selling business...

 

When you sell a man a book,†says Roger Mifflin, protagonist of these classic bookselling novels, “you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue — you sell him a whole new life.†The new life the itinerant bookman delivers to Helen McGill, the narrator of Parnassus on Wheels, provides the romantic comedy that drives the novel. Published in 1917, Morley’s Þrst love letter to the trafÞc in books remains a transporting entertainment. Its sequel, The Haunted Bookshop, Þnds Mifflin and McGill, now married, ensconced in Brooklyn. The novel’s rollicking plot provides ample doses of diversion, while allowing more room for Mifflin (and Morley) to expound on the intricacy of the bookseller’s art. Introductions by James Mustich, Jr.

 

ETA--not sure what's up with those peculiar character typos in the review, that's how they appear in the original.

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Neither ds nor I can put The Golem and the Jinni down. We're keeping pace with each other seamlessly though naturally his tween boy self wonders who will finish first :lol: He and dh are off to a baseball game today so I hope to get some serious reading done with a touch of cleaning and grocery shopping thrown in for good measure.

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Well that list should keep mumto2 busy for the rest of the month. :lol:

 

The Siege by Helen Dunmore is an absolutely remarkable book. There is a level of realism that I have only found in works by Eastern/Middle European authors regarding how every day people survived WWII. I must confess that I knew little of the Siege of Leningrad prior to read Dunmore's book which led to some Internet rabbit trails. But frankly I am not interested in military strategy or the history of bureaucracy. The siege led to the death of 1.5 million people. Those who survived did so because of sheer will and resorting to eating things like wallpaper paste. (Why in my Coldwar childhood did I not learn about this?)

 

Dunmore's novel is the story of a young woman trying to keep her young brother alive while watching the decline of her father and falling in love with a doctor who diagnoses diseases among his patients but knows that starvation is the root cause of their illnesses. This is a powerful and beautifully written book.

Will have to look for Dunmore's book. I know some of us BaWers mentioned it before, but I'd highly recommend City of Thieves by David Benioff while you're in Leningrad-mode anyway. It seems to be a mix of fiction & non-fiction (based on the author's grandfather's accounts of the time). I thought it was a great story.

 

From the critically acclaimed author of The 25th Hour and When the Nines Roll Over, a captivating novel about war, courage, survival — and a remarkable friendship that ripples across a lifetime.

 

During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen eggs for a powerful Soviet colonel to use in his daughter’s wedding cake. In a city cut off from all supplies and suffering unbelievable deprivation, Lev and Kolya embark on a hunt through the dire lawlessness of Leningrad and behind enemy lines to find the impossible.

 

By turns insightful and funny, thrilling and terrifying, the New York Times bestseller City of Thieves is a gripping, cinematic World War II adventure and an intimate coming-of-age story with an utterly contemporary feel for how boys become men.

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ETA. I just went back to that website and have been looking at this linkhttp://ravencrimereads.wordpress.com/the-guardian-1000-novels-everyone-must-read-crime-novels/ of the 1000 best crime novels.  I haven't read nearly as many as I would have expected.  Some like Tartt's Secret History surprised me mainly because I haven't read it and probably would have if I had realized it was a crime novel. :lol:

 

I've probably read a few more on that list than I thought I would have. If you counted the movie forms of them, I would know a lot! :blush: It also has a couple of my most-hated books on there: Perfume by Patrick Suskind (a book I love to hate & I think it has the worst ending I've ever read in a book) & American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (so gruesome that I returned it to the bookstore w/out finishing it; I would have never thought to return it, but when I bought it [back when I was in my 20s], the gal working there told me that if I started reading & hated it, I could bring it back. These days, I wonder if she was on a mission against it too?).

 

To see a longer list (I think it's a longer list), here you go: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/18/1000-novels-crime-part-one

(ETA: I was thinking it was 1,000 crime novels, but it's not. I guess the list is 1,000 books to read, some of them being crime novels. Off to go find the other parts of the list...)

 

Mumto2, I definitely recommend Donna Tartt (any of her books).

 

ETA (again): The 1,000 list (just titles & authors, no descriptions): http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jan/23/bestbooks-fiction

 

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The Siege by Helen Dunmore is an absolutely remarkable book.  There is a level of realism that I have only found in works by Eastern/Middle European authors regarding how every day people survived WWII.  I must confess that I knew little of the Siege of Leningrad prior to read Dunmore's book which led to some Internet rabbit trails.  But frankly I am not interested in military strategy or the history of bureaucracy.  The siege led to the death of 1.5 million people. Those who survived did so because of sheer will and resorting to eating things like wallpaper paste.  (Why in my Coldwar childhood did I not learn about this?)

 

Dunmore's novel is the story of a young woman trying to keep her young brother alive while watching the decline of her father and falling in love with a doctor who diagnoses diseases among his patients but knows that starvation is the root cause of their illnesses.  This is a powerful and beautifully written book.

 

Another one for my WWII, tbr pile.

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50 Essential Cult Novels

 

Have read some, some have been on my mental to-read list for years.... I Capture the Castle is on there, lol.

 

Hey-The Magus is on the list!  John Fowles fan reporting!

 

But they chose the wrong cover for Stranger in a Strange Land.  Paul Lehr is the cover artist of choice.  (Cult member?  No, but sometime I should tell you guys a great story about what happened when Paul came to dinner.)

 

 

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Hey-The Magus is on the list!  John Fowles fan reporting!

 

But they chose the wrong cover for Stranger in a Strange Land.  Paul Lehr is the cover artist of choice.  (Cult member?  No, but sometime I should tell you guys a great story about what happened when Paul came to dinner.)

 

 

 

Not only what happened but what was served :D

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