Book a Week in 2014 - BW29

[Rosie_0801]

It has been SO long since I've finished a book.  I've been stuck in a rut for months.  I've started and stopped several books due to lack of inspiration, or maybe just laziness:  Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World by Dalai Lama, Moby Dick, Insurgent, and who knows how many others.

 

 

I don't blame you on the Dalai Lama's book. I found that most disappointing.

[Jane in NC]

Hi everyone!

 

I am reading Major Barbara, Shaw being one of my 5-5-5s; Stuart Little because of the recent conversation; and a fun mystery called Blood Royal by Barbara Cleverly (Soho Crime).

 

Stuart Little is a 1945 printing--- and it smells like it. Taking the book in small doses.

 

Airkisses to all,

Jane

[JennW in SoCal]

Hi everyone!

 

I am reading ......  Stuart Little because of the recent conversation

Airkisses to all,

Jane

 

And I cannot find our copy of Stuart Little.  Been cleaning out book shelves and have found Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Web, but Stuart is missing in action.  Off driving in search of something other than the bird, I guess.

 

Of course, the largest bookshelves in the house are in a room that has been the staging dumping ground for all the sorting and purging of everything else. I can't physically get close enough to read the titles on those shelves!  My favorite, Rascal, is also MIA.

[Angel]

And I cannot find our copy of Stuart Little.  Been cleaning out book shelves and have found Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Web, but Stuart is missing in action.  Off driving in search of something other than the bird, I guess.

 

Of course, the largest bookshelves in the house are in a room that has been the staging dumping ground for all the sorting and purging of everything else. I can't physically get close enough to read the titles on those shelves!  My favorite, Rascal, is also MIA.

 

:lol:   Ditto, here!  Though if I push enough other stacks of books and workbooks out of the way I can at least get to the shelves.  Oh, and the pile for Goodwill!

[Robin M]

I don't blame you on the Dalai Lama's book. I found that most disappointing.

 

 

Which books on world religions did you find to be the most fascinating?  

 

 

 

[shukriyya]

Well I'm in the overflowing books camp also despite the use of kindles. Part of this is because the books are all pre-kindle but we just purchased yet another bookcase to house the overflow.

[NoseInABook]

That teapot is adorable!
 

I still have a few hundred pages left of Written In My Own Heart's Blood because I got distracted with Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book and Damien Echols and Lorri Davis' Yours For Eternity: A Love Story On Death Row. I picked up the Echols/Davis book at B&N when I was killing time during a parenting visit for the baby. It is quite possibly the most bizarre, roll your eyes at, yet fascinating enough to suck you in book I've read in a while. I may frequently exclaim, "What in the heck is WRONG with these people?!" Funny enough, I just watched Devil's Knot on Netflix which is based on the West Memphis 3 which includes Damien Echols. 

 

The Graveyard Book is spooky fun and I'm glad I bought it even though it's a children's novel. My kids will enjoy it in a few years and I think the story is entertaining. 

[Kareni]

I just finished The Glass House (Captain Lacey Regecy Mysteries) by Ashley Gardner.  I enjoyed it. 

 

"On a cold January night in 1817, Captain Gabriel Lacey, former cavalry officer turned amateur sleuth, is summoned to the banks of the Thames to identify the body of a young woman. When Lacey looks down at the pretty, dead young woman, cut down too soon, he vows to find her murderer. Lacey's search takes him to the Glass House, a sordid gaming hell that played a large part in the victim's past, as well as to gatherings of the haut ton and the chambers of respectable Middle Temple barristers. Lacey uncovers secrets from the highborn and the low, finds himself drawn deeper into the schemes of a crime lord, and explores his tentative new friendship with Lady Breckenridge."

 

I'd recommend starting with book one in the series -- The Hanover Square Affair: Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries.  Note that this title is available free to Kindle readers.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Finished "Silence Once Begun" by Jesse Ball.

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-jesse-ball-20140126-story.html

 

Imo, it is a fabulous book. The structure of the story & the pacing are lovely, while unraveling a beautiful & thoughtful narrative. Even though the author is not Japanese, the novel (set in Japan) very much has a Japanese mindset & style, imo. In one way, the story is a mystery, but it is also not a mystery, more a tunneling look at actions, words, silences, truths, lies, & memories.

 

In a way it reminds me of another book I read & loved, "All Men are Liars" by Alberto Manguel.

 

The author apparently teaches courses about both lucid dreaming & lying -- topics which I see threaded through the story. I think he is teaching these in relation to writing, to being an author. I would love to attend some of his classes. I once said that I would want Michael Ondaatje to write my diaries for me. After having read two of Ball's books (the other book being "The Way Through Doors"), I think he may be the one who should write large portions of my dream journals. Now I just have to be like Spock & hone my mind-melding capabilities to collaborate with both of these authors on my projects. Lol.

 

I know there are plenty of mystery fans on this thread, so I'll especially recommend it to you as something quite outside of the mystery norm.

[shukriyya]

I just finished watching the second to last episode of the third season of 'Call the Midwife'. Ds has been at camp all week so once he's been delivered for the day I've had time to clean and read and do errands and then put my feet up with a cup of tea and watch an episode of CTM. It's been such a luxurious little treat. Tomorrow is the last day of camp and with one episode to go I've unintentionally timed it well.

 

My current read, My Notorious Life, is moving a long with Dickensian flair and drama. The heroine, Annie (Axie) Muldoon, becomes an orphan early in her life where she learns street smarts and survival in the ghettos of New York. Through a serendipitous placement with a couple when she was twelve, she learns the art of midwifery, the different aspects of contraception and how to 'remove obstructions', a euphemism for abortion. After several years of this she soon finds herself dispensing all manner of treatment to women who show up in various stages of pregnancy. The descriptions of the women's lives back then, which so often centered around birth or the prevention of it, motherhood and its demands are written with intimate but unsentimental detail. I'm about 60% of the way through and am finding myself caught up in the story of this woman who apparently was an actual woman who lived in New York in the late 1800s...

 

Inspired by the true history of an infamous female physician who was once called “the Wickedest Woman in New York,†My Notorious Life is a mystery, a family saga, a love story, and an exquisitely detailed portrait of nineteenth-century America. Axie Muldoon’s inimitable voice brings the past alive, and her story haunts and enlightens the present.

[aggieamy]

Totally agree about Kat.  Can't wait to hear what you have to say at the end of Why Mermaids Sing!

 

 

Whoa.  Whoa.  Whoa.  I did not see that coming!  But ... isn't he ... I can't say anymore ... but it was another fun book in the series.  If I were to have a complaint about the book it would be on the foreshadowing of who the killer is.  Let me give you a made up paragraph to use as an example.

 

page 50

 

Lady Julia watches in the mirror as her maid Molly pins and adjusts her hat.  Julia's mind was racing with all the events of the past week.  She couldn't believe someone had murdered George.  And it turned out that he had been blackmailing Sir Horace.  And having an affair with Lady Grace which had enraged her husband the Duke who had threatened his life.  And the scandal over the money George has stolen from Patrick and the East India Company was very stressful.

 

Based on that paragraph who would you think the killer was?  Sir Horace? The Duke? Patrick?  No.  Wrong.  It was Molly the maid who was only mentioned in that one paragraph. It turns out she was really the long lost twin of Lady Grace and was exacting her revenge.  

 

Hmm. 

 

I could have used one or two clues that I could look back on and go "ah ... that was a clever hint."  I feel like the killer always comes as an unexpected and almost unbelievable surprise.  

[Stacia]

I feel like the killer always comes as an unexpected and almost unbelievable surprise.

Have you ever seen the movie Murder by Death? It's a must-see for mystery fans, especially if you're familiar with many of the famous fictional sleuths.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Death-Peter-Falk/dp/B00005RDRO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1405642347&sr=1-1&keywords=murder+by+death

[Stacia]

Ok, this big pile of books has made me like a kid in a candy store, lol. I am now partway into FOUR different books. These days, I rarely handle more than one or two at a time.

 

Kehua! by Fay Weldon

Asunder by Chloe Aridjis

The Intern's Handbook by Shane Kuhn

American Innovations by Rivka Galchen

 

The last is a set of short stories (not normally what I like) & I was going to quit after the first two stories. But, I decided to try one more at random & now maybe I'll continue, but not in the printed order. Do you read short story collections in the order printed or do you skip around amongst the stories?

[JennW in SoCal]

Do you read short story collections in the order printed or do you skip around amongst the stories?

 

I'm a renegade non-conformist who blithely skips around short story collections and will skip around chapters of non-fiction.  I've skipped ahead when I wonder if a novel is going to be worth my while, then if looks promising in the later chapters, I'll go back and fill in what I skipped. If it doesn't look worthwhile I'll skim the end then put it down and call it read.  I can come into a movie after it has started and happily watch the rest of it, filling in what I missed by context. Makes my husband crazy as he is a linear kind of guy who must start at the very beginning.  

 

 

I am half way through The Golem and the Jinni, and am thoroughly enjoying it, not feeling any need whatsoever to skip ahead to see if it is worth continuing!  Am wondering what I will think of the ending after what Shukriyya reported.  I started it on audio and switched to the e-book which I think I'll stay with as I'm not in love with the narrator's voice.  

[Stacia]

Nonfiction books about the 50 states (one listed per state):

http://flavorwire.com/466570/a-nonfiction-tour-of-america-50-books-for-50-states/view-all

[Stacia]

Finished Asunder by Chloe Aridjis. It's a very quiet, low-key book with little plot movement but with some lovely little details, thoughts, & symbols.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/chloe-aridjis/asunder-aridjis/

I think that perhaps Jane & Shukriyya might enjoy this one.

 

Jenn, I enjoy hearing of your non-conformist reading ways! I've read a few more of the short stories out of order & am enjoying them so much more that way.

[Stacia]

Tress, Loesje, & Heather -- thinking of you & your family & friends during the airplane tragedy. Your communities have been hit very hard. Hugs.

[mumto2]

 

Whoa.  Whoa.  Whoa.  I did not see that coming!  But ... isn't he ... I can't say anymore ... but it was another fun book in the series.  If I were to have a complaint about the book it would be on the foreshadowing of who the killer is.  Let me give you a made up paragraph to use as an example.

 

page 50

 

Lady Julia watches in the mirror as her maid Molly pins and adjusts her hat.  Julia's mind was racing with all the events of the past week.  She couldn't believe someone had murdered George.  And it turned out that he had been blackmailing Sir Horace.  And having an affair with Lady Grace which had enraged her husband the Duke who had threatened his life.  And the scandal over the money George has stolen from Patrick and the East India Company was very stressful.

 

Based on that paragraph who would you think the killer was?  Sir Horace? The Duke? Patrick?  No.  Wrong.  It was Molly the maid who was only mentioned in that one paragraph. It turns out she was really the long lost twin of Lady Grace and was exacting her revenge.  

 

Hmm. 

 

I could have used one or two clues that I could look back on and go "ah ... that was a clever hint."  I feel like the killer always comes as an unexpected and almost unbelievable surprise.  

 

Amy -- all I can say is it starts to sort itself out in the next book.  I think you will enjoy that part. But the isn't he???? issue continues... Overall I love this series because the twists and turns make it very interesting.  Several underlying continuing stories swirl around as that particular book's story continues forward.   They also take place so close together which is unusual.

 

 I still have the last one to read and discovered that there is another coming soon.  I am hoping my overdrive kindle library will invest in the rest of the series, the first three appeared a couple of weeks ago.  I own the first one but can't bring myself to buy the last one without the rest in the middle.  I really don't want to do that! :lol:

 

Short stories......I really don't read that many books of short stories to be honest.  When I do I think it depends on what my intentions are.  Do I plan to read them all?  If I do  I will read in order.  If I picked the book in order to read one or two then those go first followed by others that appeal.  

[Tress]

Tress, Loesje, & Heather -- thinking of you & your family & friends during the airplane tragedy. Your communities have been hit very hard. Hugs.

 

Thank you. It is a tragedy. Plane crashes because of defects are bad, but getting shot down.... :wacko:.

My husband took that plane a couple of weeks ago. Makes it very close, suddenly.

 

[Giraffe]

Hugs to those who fly often, especially over uncertain regions.

 

I am still reading "Anathem" and have my brain completely turned inside out. I may have to reread parts. But that will have to wait because I am in the USA and have access to the library!!! I put the brakes on the reserve list at 23 (some are for DD, really!). I cannot wait to head over there tomorrow and pick up my first batch of little treasures.

 

Books! Glorious books!!

 

And my mom GAVE me her copy of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of "Anna Karenina" to take back with me. Heaven!!

[Rosie_0801]

Which books on world religions did you find to be the most fascinating?  

 

Fascinating? Hmm. None I don't think. I read a blog post about an atheist pagan getting claimed by a deity and wish I'd bookmarked it because I've never been able to find it again. She wasn't very pleased. :lol: I watched a youtube lecture about Confucianism that was pretty darned interesting too. I've read a lot of Muslim blog posts too. If you want to know what people think they are doing, eavesdropping is the best way to find out!

 

Interesting is a different word. Books on food laws are interesting. Eliana has inspired me to do a Jewish reading challenge next year. I expect that'll be interesting too. I'm expecting the books I have to read to dd about Shinto and Chinese Folk religion later in the year will be interesting too because I haven't read much about them before.

 

So, I don't have a good answer for you. How annoying.  :angry:

 

Anyway, back atcha: What would make a religion book fascinating?

[mumto2]

:hurray: Jonathan Strange is done!!!!  Now I can return to my pile and make progress on getting some returned.  I did enjoy it but very slow going for me.  Huge book that goes onto my chunky 5/5.  I think that makes 3 chunkies for the year.  

[MicheleinMN]

 I've skipped ahead when I wonder if a novel is going to be worth my while, then if looks promising in the later chapters, I'll go back and fill in what I skipped. 

 

I do this too!  It makes my children twitch, but I refuse to waste time with a book that isn't going anywhere I want go.

[Onceuponatime]

Speaking of religion, I am currently reading The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. He is the professor who recently taught a course on Buddhism and Modern Psychology on Coursera. I find all kinds of books on religion fascinating, especially those that cover history, sociology, ethics, philosophy, or psychology. The  ones I don't care for are those that get uber-mystical or how-to books. I tried a Deepak Chopra once. :P

 

Skipping around in books?! :svengo: My daughter used to do that, I don't know if she still does it drove me crazy. Yes, I am totally linear. I must read a story as if I am experiencing it myself. We never see the end of our life while we are still living in the middle!

 

Reading short stories out of order is not the same thing. Each one is an encapsulated story.

[LostSurprise]

 

Of course, the largest bookshelves in the house are in a room that has been the staging dumping ground for all the sorting and purging of everything else. I can't physically get close enough to read the titles on those shelves!  My favorite, Rascal, is also MIA.

 

 

:lol:   Ditto, here!  Though if I push enough other stacks of books and workbooks out of the way I can at least get to the shelves.  Oh, and the pile for Goodwill!

 

 

Well I'm in the overflowing books camp also despite the use of kindles. Part of this is because the books are all pre-kindle but we just purchased yet another bookcase to house the overflow.

 

We also have a room like this...but I blame dh. The shelves surround his desk which is a dumping ground for every item he doesn't want to deal with right now. You can tell how far in the 4-6 month cycle he is by how far you can walk into that room. I"m pretty sure if I didn't have to get to the back door the room would look like an episode of Hoarders. 

 

I've emptied a few bookcases by his desk hoping that he could use the space and leave the floor, but the longer we're married the more I realize this is not going to happen. Marry a creative guy, marry into the mess of 3 dozen simultaneous projects. 

 

 

Side question: how many people here have a separate library? Mixed office/library or schoolroom/library? ( I'd love to see pictures too if you have them.) 

[Stacia]

For myself, I don't mind reading short stories out of order. As Onceuponatime says, they're encapsulated. I wonder who determines the order -- the author, the editor, the publishing company? (Still on the fence about finishing the book of short stories. They are well-written & interesting enough, but I'm just not really a short story kind of person unless it's exceptional. I've read 5 of the 10 stories so far.)

 

However, I don't like reading ahead/out of order in a regular novel because I don't want any surprises revealed ahead of time. That's also why I don't read many summaries beforehand either.

[aggieamy]

Have you ever seen the movie Murder by Death? It's a must-see for mystery fans, especially if you're familiar with many of the famous fictional sleuths.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Murder-Death-Peter-Falk/dp/B00005RDRO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1405642347&sr=1-1&keywords=murder+by+death

 

I love that movie.  I used to watch it with my grandmother because we were both huge fans of the classic murder mysteries.  Might have to pick it up from the library this weekend because I had kinda forgotten about it.

[Jane in NC]

I tip my virtual hat to VC who inspired me to reread Stuart Little for myself and not as one of those pre-bedtime stories. It is indeed a strange book on so many levels and I must say that I think I love it even more as a parent who has just launched her recent college grad into an unknown world.

 

About short stories: I am not a huge fan of the form. Nonetheless I am reading Andrea Barrett's collection Archangel starting with the middle story since that story came recommended to me.

 

To those interested in reading about religion, I can suggest reading Shaw's 40 page preface to his play Major Barbara. It is biting-- but certainly thought provoking. "You will never get a high morality from people who conceive that their misdeeds are revocable and pardonable, or in a society where absolution and expiation are officially provided for us all. The demand may be very real; but the supply is spurious."

[Stacia]

Since my reading time is short & my book pile is big, I think I may set aside Galchen's book of short stories. They are good but I don't love short stories enough to invest more time in them right now. And, I've read a little over 50 pages in The Intern's Handbook, thinking it would be a fast-paced, fun summer read. It is, but the style comes across as too disaffected to me so I don't think I'll finish it.

 

Need to get back to Fay Weldon's Kehua! Am also starting Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Don't know too much about it, am just hoping that I don't come across anything too creepy or scary in there! Plus, it takes place along the coast (gee, I'm at the beach now), so I may totally chicken out.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/05/annihilation-review-jeff-vandermeer-afraid-turn-page

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/annihilation-by-jeff-vandermeer/2014/02/25/0a52a03a-9d82-11e3-b8d8-94577ff66b28_story.html

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jeff-vandermeer/annihilation/

[Violet Crown]

Still reading Boccaccio. This week hasn't left much reading time; I've taken on an extra student, and it's not working; she needs so much more intensive remedial one-on-one work than I can give her, and I can't manage to combine lessons no matter how I try it without someone getting utterly lost or bored out of her mind. All my free time is going into lesson planning that doesn't work. I am so not looking forward to telling her mom I can't, after all, homeschool her. Fortunately the academic year hasn't started yet for the private school alternative.

 

Dh has the private library. His spacious office is in a building from the pre-air conditioning days, with huge opening windows and high ceilings (and hardwood floors, and brass fittings, and...). So he lined the walls with ceiling-high bookshelves and put in comfy chairs. He gets a lot of visits. Once the university offered his department one of the newly constructed buildings, with quiet elevators, carpeting, low ceilings, fluorescent lights, outlets in every wall, every modern convenience. The faculty turned the offer down flat.

[CAMom]

I spent the last two days lying low with a summer cold so I finished two books:

 

There are No Children Here: by Alex Kotlowitz - Wow! I've tried to read some books this year that challenge me in my position of upper middle class security. This one certainly did. I kept needing to remind myself that this was not a fictional account. These events really happened. And, they happened (and happen) here in the US.

 

I find myself wanting to know what happened to Lafayette and Pharoah. I've thought about trying to look it up. But, I'm afraid to know, too. I was satisfied with the ending of the book. Yes, they were still living in poverty in a dangerous situation but I had hope for them. The book ends 25 years ago....Has anyone investigated the direction their lives took after that?

 

Just What Kind of Mother are You?: by Paula Daly - I picked this one up at the library thinking it would be a quick summer read. It was. But....

 

I go back to Goodreads and Amazon and can't believe the good reviews it gets. When I finished the final page last night, I closed the book and said to dh, "What a lame book! I'm glad I only wasted a 'sick day' reading it." I don't know what people are seeing in it.

 

It was a bunch of un-related and unrealistic facts lumped together with the mystery being solved purely by coincidence at the very end. I didn't find any of the characters likeable. It was a debut novel so I'll give some grace and hope that her next book is a little more coherent.

 

I've been listening to The Secret Life of Bees on Audible and am loving that one.

[aggieamy]

Everyone please go quick to the library and pick up Fictitious Dishes.  You'll love it.  It's a bunch of fantastic pictures of meals from literature.  

 

[Robin M]

Fascinating? Hmm. None I don't think. I read a blog post about an atheist pagan getting claimed by a deity and wish I'd bookmarked it because I've never been able to find it again. She wasn't very pleased. :lol: I watched a youtube lecture about Confucianism that was pretty darned interesting too. I've read a lot of Muslim blog posts too. If you want to know what people think they are doing, eavesdropping is the best way to find out!

 

Interesting is a different word. Books on food laws are interesting. Eliana has inspired me to do a Jewish reading challenge next year. I expect that'll be interesting too. I'm expecting the books I have to read to dd about Shinto and Chinese Folk religion later in the year will be interesting too because I haven't read much about them before.

 

So, I don't have a good answer for you. How annoying.  :angry:

 

Anyway, back atcha: What would make a religion book fascinating?

 

Okay, maybe fascinating was the wrong word.  And we could argue semantics all day long but I won't.   I was looking for books that you liked versus the ones that didn't do it for you at all.  What do I look for in a book on faith or religion?  I look for ones that will teach me something new, help me spiritually, make me think,  inspire me basically.  I'm also looking for books to teach my kiddo about world religions that are interesting and more just the facts,  without being overly preachy.   Glad to hear Eliana has inspired you to do a Jewish Reading challenge. That sounds quite, to me, fascinating.  Quite a while ago, I purchased a Hebrew study bible in order to compare it to our Catholic bible.  A historical fictional series I found totally enthralling and educational and am about to read again is Bodie Thoene's Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series which follows of the struggle of jewish people from the time of hitler's takeover through Israel's statehood in 1948.

[Robin M]

Reason why I don't like short stories all that much is because just when I start getting into it, it is done.  I like to be involved with a story for an hour or two and have more to go back too. They just wrap up so fast. But there is an art to the short story and I'm trying to learn how to appreciate them.  Not withstanding the fact that will be part of James curriculum this year and part of my writing self education this year, learning how to write one. Easier said than done. So,

 

 

Speaking of religion, I am currently reading The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. He is the professor who recently taught a course on Buddhism and Modern Psychology on Coursera. I find all kinds of books on religion fascinating, especially those that cover history, sociology, ethics, philosophy, or psychology. The  ones I don't care for are those that get uber-mystical or how-to books. I tried a Deepak Chopra once. :p

 

Skipping around in books?! :svengo: My daughter used to do that, I don't know if she still does it drove me crazy. Yes, I am totally linear. I must read a story as if I am experiencing it myself. We never see the end of our life while we are still living in the middle!

 

Reading short stories out of order is not the same thing. Each one is an encapsulated story.

My hubby does the same thing, skipping around in books, but he does it to bug me.  He'll grab one of mine that I may or may not have in progress, open it up anywhere and read a part out loud.  Totally confuses and irritates me at the same times. He know how to get my goat.

 

 

 

 

Did you all see the news about Kindle Unlimited - $9.99 per month unlimited reading.  So tempting.

[-M-]

Hello! Finished a boatload of books since my last post, including (finally!) Quiet. For the record, I first began reading that book back in January *blush* ... 2012. Ayup. I am one of the most promiscuous readers I know. Heh, heh, heh. Starting them, loving them, setting them aside for the new, newer, newest thing. I also finished Big Data, another book it seems like I've been dipping into for months and months. With Quiet, which I now believe was both over-hyped and over-praised but not altogether unsatisfactory, I hit fifty-three books read to date. I met the goal a bit later this year than last, but that's all right.

 

Books read:

 

■ Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking (Susan Cain; 2012. 352 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  The Three (Sarah Lotz; 2014. 480 pages. Fiction.)

â–  A Season of Gifts (Richard Peck; 2009. 176 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Landline (Rainbow Rowell; 2013. 320 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die (Eric Siegel ; 2013. 320 pages. Non-fiction.)

■ Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think (Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier; 2013. 256 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York; 2013. 256 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  Magritte (Marcel Paquet; 2012. 96 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  Kandinsky (Hajo Duchting; 2012. 96 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic (Professor X; 2011. 288 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  Antony and Cleopatra (William Shakespeare (1606); Folger ed. 2005. 336 pages. Drama.)

â–  The Girl with All the Gifts (M.R. Cary; 2014. 416 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Python for Informatics: Exploring Information (Charles R. Severance; 2013. 244 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  The Stranger (Albert Camus (1942); 1989 edition. 123 pages. Fiction.) *

■ Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë (1847); 2005 B&N edition. 592 pages. Fiction.) *

â–  The Fever (Meg Abbott; 2014. 320 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Burial Rites (Hannah Kent; 2013. 336 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Other Side of Sadness (George A. Bonanno; 2010. 240 pages. Non-fiction.)

■ The Blue Fox (Sjón; 2013. 128 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Dance of Death (August Strindberg (Conor McPherson, trans.); 1900 (2012). Drama.)

â–  We Were Liars (E. Lockhart; 2014. 240 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Detainee (Peter Liney; 2014. 352 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Annihilation (Jeff VanderMeer; 2014. 208 pages. Fiction.)

■ All’s Well That Ends Well (William Shakespeare (1604); Folger ed. 2006. 336 pages. Drama.)

â–  Soft Apocalypse (Will McIntosh; 2011. 239 pages. Fiction.)

â–  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (Alexander Sozhenitsyn; 1962/2009. 208 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Masterpiece Comics (R. Sikoryak; 2009. 64 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Infected (Scott Sigler; 2008. 384 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Veronica Mars: The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line (Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham; 2014. 336 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Running Wild (J.G. Ballard; 1989. 116 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The How and the Why (Sarah Treem; 2013. Drama.)

â–  Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade (Walter Kirn; 2014. 272 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  Dope (Sara Gran; 2007. 256 pages. Fiction.)

â–  People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo (Richard Lloyd Parry; 2012. 464 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  The Troop (Nick Cutter; 2014. 368 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Mayo Clinic Diet (2012. 254 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  This Is Where I Leave You (Jonathan Trooper; 2009. 352 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck; 1937. 112 pages. Fiction.)

■ Gideon’s Knot (Johanna Adams; DPS new acquisition / unbound. Drama.)

â–  The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013 (ed. Siddhartha Mukherjee; 2013. 368 pages. Non-fiction.)

â–  Lexicon (Max Barry; Folger ed. 2013. 400 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Circle (Dave Eggers; 2013. 504 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Good Sister (Drusilla Campbell; 2010. 352 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Two Gentlemen of Verona (William Shakespeare (1589); Folger ed. 2006. 304 pages. Drama.) *

â–  Hedda Gabler (Henrik Ibsen; 1890. Drama.) *

â–  Labor Day (Joyce Maynard; 2009. 256 pages. Fiction.)

■ The Living (Matt De La Peña; 2013. 320 pages. Fiction.)

â–  Henry V (William Shakespeare (1599); Folger ed. 2004. 294 pages. Drama.) *

â–  Henry IV, Part II (William Shakespeare (1599); Folger ed. 2006. 400 pages. Drama.) *

â–  Henry IV, Part I (William Shakespeare (1597); Folger ed. 2005. 336 pages. Drama.) *

â–  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum; 1895 / 2008. 224 pages. Juvenile fiction.)

â–  Cartwheel (Jennifer duBois; 2013. 384 pages. Fiction.)

â–  The Wicked Girls (Alex Marwood; 2013. 384 pages. Fiction.)

[-M-]

The quote function is giving me an awfully hard time this evening.

 

Regarding the image of the woman reading that Negin posted. It's a Botero, right? Love it. He has several of, ahem, nude women reading that are also quite fun.

 

Regarding Stoner by John Williams: What a brilliant examination of one man's inner life! The following is from my commonplace book:
 

p. 26

He began to resent the time he had to spend at work on the Foote farm. Having come to his studies late, he felt the urgency of study. Sometimes, immersed in his books, there would come to him the awareness of all that he did not know, of all that he had not read; and the serenity for which he labored was shattered as he realized the little time he had in life to read so much, to learn what he had to know.

COMMENT: How accurately this passage describes those who, like me, like William Stoner, arrive at the scholar’s banquet late: We resent any activity that keeps us from reading, thinking, learning, synthesizing, writing. And we are occasionally all but undone by the realization that there will never be enough time to read all that we want — all we must read.
________________________
p. 74

Within a month he knew that his marriage was a failure; within a year he stopped hoping it would improve.

COMMENT: In a sentence formed with the deceptive simplicity of a Shaker rocking chair, Williams establishes how Stoner’s inherited stoicism has and will inform his entire life — a life that the author maintains wasn’t “such a sad and bad†one, despite the ineffable melancholy the sentence above may evoke. After all, he continues in an interview about Stoner:

He had a better life than most people do, certainly. He was doing what he wanted to do, he had some feeling for what he was doing, he had some sense of the importance of the job he was doing.

Yes, since William Stoner is a man of so few relationships, the failure of his marriage before it even begins presages how essential his work will be.
________________________
p. 113

He suspected that he was beginning, ten years late, to discover who he was; and the figure he saw was both more and less than he had once imagined it to be. He felt himself at last beginning to be a teacher, which was simply a man to whom his book is true, to whom is given a dignity of art that has little to do with his foolishness or weakness or inadequacy as a man. It was knowledge of which he could not speak, but one which changed him, once he had it, so that no one could mistake its presence.

COMMENT: The maturity, the wisdom of this self-realization and the quiet but essential way in which it strengthens Stoner will startle readers accustomed to the angsty navel-gazing that masquerades as penetrating insight in more contemporary novels.
________________________
p. 138

Almost from the first, the implications of the subject caught the students, and they all had that sense of discovery that comes when one feels that the subject at hand lies at the center of a much larger subject, and when one feels intensely that a pursuit of the subject is likely to lead — where, one does not know.

COMMENT: I’ve experienced this sense of scholarly delight, intensity, and, yes, urgency more frequently in my autodidactic pursuits and in our family-centered learning project than in my undergraduate and graduate studies.
________________________
p. 179

He had come to that moment in his age when there occurred to him, with increasing intensity, a question of such overwhelming simplicity that he had no means to face it. He found himself wondering if his life were worth the living; if it had ever been. It was a question, he suspected, that came to all men at one time or another; he wondered if it came to them with such impersonal force as it came to him. The question brought with it a little sadness, but it was a general sadness which (he thought) had little to do with himself or with his particular fate; he was not even sure that the question sprang from the most immediate and obvious causes, from what his own life had become. It came, he believed, from the accretion of his years, from the density of accident and circumstance, and from what he had come to understand of them. He took a grim and ironic pleasure from the possibility that what little learning he had managed to acquire had led him to this knowledge: that in the long run all things, even the learning that let him know this, were futile and empty, and at last diminished into a nothingness they did not alter.

COMMENT: This meditation occurs after Walker’s sham of a graduate examination and the repercussions of Stoner’s evaluation of his performance but before Katherine Driscoll’s re-entry into the professor’s life. Sandwiched, as it were, between these two defining moments in Stoner’s chronology, it may have read as midlife crisis and cliché had it not been for the stoicism and scholarly detachment with which Stoner examines and then dispatches the basic question of life: What does it all mean?
________________________
p. 232

And Stoner looked upon it all — the rage, the woe, the screams, and the hateful silences — as if it were happening to two other people, in whom, by an effort of the will, he could summon only the most perfunctory interest.

COMMENT: In other words, one’s stoicism not only yields penetrating self-evaluation but also diminishes the effects of emotional gales. Like any philosophy, stoicism has its limits and disadvantages, but Stoner manages to employ it effectively.

[-M-]

Side question: how many people here have a separate library? Mixed office/library or schoolroom/library? ( I'd love to see pictures too if you have them.) 

 

Here's a pic of part of our library, which begins in the living room, continues through the piano room / library proper (the corner of the piano is in the righthand corner), and slides right down the hall to the so-called "girl cave," where it claims three walls. There are also floor-to-ceiling shelves in the master bedroom.

 

 

ETA: The pic was taken in early 2011, shortly after we moved to the forever home on the prairie. We've made some changes since then, but the essence remains.

[shukriyya]

The last is a set of short stories (not normally what I like) & I was going to quit after the first two stories. But, I decided to try one more at random & now maybe I'll continue, but not in the printed order. Do you read short story collections in the order printed or do you skip around amongst the stories?

 

I wonder if short story reading requires its own approach. Lots of folks are put off by them which is rather contradictory commentary on sustained attention in this age of link love and web browsing. We're constantly being told that we, as a culture, have grown increasingly fickle in our ability to sustain concentration for longer periods of time thanks to the internet and yet here we all are saying we prefer a lengthier reading experience, that we prefer to sustain our attention and commit to various characters and plot lines. 

 

I recall loving Alice Munroe's short stories at a certain point in my life and reading a lot of them. I read them in order. I know I read more but she's the author who comes most immediately to mind. While not exactly short stories, the Lang fairy books are my most recent dip into the realm of shorter prose. I have tended to jump around with these tales reading what takes my fancy at the time. I think this is less of an issue than with short stories as I don't imagine Lang had in mind an intentional trajectory with them (beyond grouping them by culture) whereas with a short story collection one would think the author would consciously place the stories in a particular order.

[Kareni]

Today I finished The Sudbury School Murders by Ashley Gardner.  It's the fourth book in the Captain Lacey Regency Mystery series which I continue to enjoy.  Definitely start with book one, The Hanover Square Affair, if you choose to read the series (free on Kindle) as relationships develop throughout the series.

 

"England, 1817

Captain Lacey takes a post as a secretary at the Sudbury School in Berkshire, a school for sons of the wealthiest merchants and bankers in England. Lacey discovers as soon as he arrives that he's been hired for more than his letter-writing skills--a series of disturbing pranks have kept the school in an uproar, and the headmaster expects Lacey to discover the identity of the prankster.

The problems intensify when a groom of the school's stables turns up dead in a lock of the nearby canal. A Romany is arrested for the murder, and Lacey is the only person who believes him innocent.

As Lacey works to discover what happened, he gets drawn into the secrets of Marianne Simmons, the actress who'd lived upstairs from Lacey in London. Marianne swears Lacey to silence, which puts a new strain on his friendship with Grenville. Meanwhile the intrigue surrounding the murder becomes as murky as the waters of the canal itself and puts Lacey and Grenville into deadly danger."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[Mom-ninja.]

I should post this tomorrow but oh well. I can repost. 

 

I finished The Knee Crisis Handbook  and learned a bit from it. I'm determined to overcome my knee injury. 

[NoseInABook]

Finished Yours For Eternity and have concluded that the authors are likely stuck at 16 and need some intense therapy.  :blink: Of course, I just grabbed Damien Echols' Life After Death from the library and I'm curious enough to read that one too. 

 

Finally finished Written In My Own Heart's Blood as well and it was meh. I liked it but I wasn't enthralled with it. I'll continue reading the series but I hope she winds it up soon. It feels like the storylines are going in circles with the same thing happening to a different character in each book. 

[mumto2]

I am just going to go ahead and post because I managed to finish a couple of previously started books thanks to a rainy day.

 

The first was Brat Farrar which was a Jane and Onceuponatime recommendation from quite a few weeks ago I think.  Really what can I say both dd and I enjoyed it.  Well written,  clever (although we both knew far in advance), basically a good mystery.  We will read some more Tey mysteries as soon as the library pile reduces itself.  Working hard on that.

 

I also finished The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever,  which is the first in Julie Quinn's Bevelstoke series.  To be honest it probably deserves a lint rating but I loved it -- seriously made me laugh a couple of times and I teared up at the end.  One of the goodreads reviews classed it as erotic but honestly it was a somewhat descriptive series romance.  I was going to link but seem to have lost the link so in quick summary a young girl falls in love with her best friend's much older very charming Viscount of a brother.  Fast forward 10 years and the girl is preparing reluctantly for her season and the Viscount becomes a widower who mistrusts women.  It carries on from there......

 

 

[Rosie_0801]

Okay, maybe fascinating was the wrong word.  And we could argue semantics all day long but I won't.   I was looking for books that you liked versus the ones that didn't do it for you at all.  

 

Mmm. Well, I won't be reading the Dalai Lama's books any more. :p I liked the Higgenbothem's 'Earth Centered Religions' book and I must confess a soft spot for 'The Tao of Pooh.'  Completing my Islam reading challenge this year will be easy enough, but it isn't so easy to find Pagan books I care to read, so I'm not sure what I'm going to manage for that reading challenge. Anyone know any Pagan books I wont' want to use for kindling?  :laugh:

 

 

 

 

What do I look for in a book on faith or religion?  I look for ones that will teach me something new, help me spiritually, make me think,  inspire me basically.  I'm also looking for books to teach my kiddo about world religions that are interesting and more just the facts,  without being overly preachy.   Glad to hear Eliana has inspired you to do a Jewish Reading challenge. That sounds quite, to me, fascinating.  Quite a while ago, I purchased a Hebrew study bible in order to compare it to our Catholic bible.  A historical fictional series I found totally enthralling and educational and am about to read again is Bodie Thoene's Zion Covenant and Zion Chronicles series which follows of the struggle of jewish people from the time of hitler's takeover through Israel's statehood in 1948.

 

To the bolded, http://philosophersmail.com is doing that for me at the moment. What religions are on your list to study? Or not on your list to study? Making those choices has been interesting for me. (And I might just bookmark that series in case someone wants to buy them for me for Christmas. It could happen. :p )

 

Edit: Actually, look out for parenting books for different faiths. They tend to provide good insight into what people think is important and how they struggle with what to do about it.

[Robin M]

 

To the bolded, http://philosophersmail.com is doing that for me at the moment. What religions are on your list to study? Or not on your list to study? Making those choices has been interesting for me. (And I might just bookmark that series in case someone wants to buy them for me for Christmas. It could happen. :p )

 

What a great website - bookmarked it for further reading.  I really don't have a set list as of yet.  I've kind of been checking out books and authors Thomas Merton has mentioned in his writings such as Gandhi, Dalie Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh.  Also have the Tao of Pooh but haven't read it yet. Basically following rabbit trails at the moment. 

 

[Kareni]

I also finished The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever,  which is the first in Julie Quinn's Bevelstoke series.  To be honest it probably deserves a lint rating but I loved it -- seriously made me laugh a couple of times and I teared up at the end.  

 

I enjoyed that one, too.  My favorite Julia Quinn book is probably Just Like Heaven.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[melmichigan]

I finished The Homeric Hymns and took my quiz for the week.  Since I finished this weeks work a day early I'm trying Vampire Most Wanted: An Argeneau Novel by Lynsay Sands while I wait for laundry to finish.  I'll leave Aeschylus I until later in the week.

[mumto2]

I enjoyed that one, too.  My favorite Julia Quinn book is probably Just Like Heaven.

 

Regards,

Kareni

I added that one to the request list.  I also have put in requests for the rest Bevelstoke series.  Many of the branches are converting to volunteer in the next month so curious to see how the requests I have in proceed.  It is not as easy as a frequent library user would think to find something that is shelved slightly wrong.  I know from sad experience ........

 

I finished The Homeric Hymns and took my quiz for the week.  Since I finished this weeks work a day early I'm trying Vampire Most Wanted: An Argeneau Novel by Lynsay Sands while I wait for laundry to finish.  I'll leave Aeschylus I until later in the week.

Thanks for the Lynsay Sands reminder.  I just checked my next Argeneau novel out thanks to overdrive.  Looking forward to it because they are always humorous.

[Robin M]

Link to week 30 - please continue conversation in new thread