Book a Week in 2014 - BW38

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday, dear hearts!  Today is the start of week 38 in our quest to read 52 Books. 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 - Armchair Traveling through the 20th Century:   The 20th Century, 1901 to 2000, was dominated by war and strife including The Great Depression, World War I and II,  the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall. But it also was a period of great achievement with the Wright brother's first airplane flight, the production of the model-T, the roaring 20's, Babe Ruth, Golden Age of television, the first space flight, the beginning of the movie series, Star Wars and the creation of the world wide web.  

Literature wise, we had the beginnings of literary modernism influenced by poets T.E. Hulme and Ezra Pound. Their usage of plain speech, free verse and vivid imagery helped shaped modern imagery. As modernism developed, T.S. Elliot's Wasteland and James Joyce Ulysses were seen, not only as controversial, but innovative and transformed the image of modernism.  

With the advances of technology during the 20th century, books became easier to produce and gave rise to popular literature.  With the rise of popularity, we had the birth of literary criticism and awards including The Nobel Peace Prize for Literature, the Nebula, and British Fantasy Awards.  

Such a wide variety of authors including Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Joseph Conrad to J.R.R. Tolkein, Jean Paul Satre, Graham Greene, and Daphne Du Maurier to Philip Dick, Robert Heinlein, to Sylvia Plath and Thomas Pynchon to Orhan Pamuk, Umberto Eco and J.K. Rowling. 

Too many resources to list so check out the ever helpful Historical Novels and Goodreads Popular 20th Century Literature. 

 

 

History of the ancient World - Chapters 48 and 49

 

Books and Images -  okay with some caveats. Will explain in next post

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 37

[Just Robyn]

I haven't finished anything since last week. I'm still working on:

A People's History of the United States

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Poem's Heartbeat: A Manual of Prosody

Grave Peril

 

and yesterday I started At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson.

 

Two questions. 1. What are your favorite novellas?   2. What books/stories can you think of that have the complex tragedy structure of Oedipus Rex - with the reversal and the recognition?

[Robin M]

Books and images fall basically under the 'fair use principles' under copyright act
 
1) purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
Courtesy of  U.S. Copyright Office-Fair Use

Clear as mud, right.   Copyrightlaw explains it a bit more clearly.

 

Yes, book images are okay to use as long as you are not using original artwork copied from an author or artist's website.  Unless, they have given permission. Most of their sites have a press or images link with permissible images to use along with if you need to give them credit.   Thumbnail images taken from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, goodreads are all okay. Images copied from a blogger's website are not unless they have given permission. Most bloggers, including me, license our images through 'creative commons' which allows other people to use those photos with certain restrictions.    If it is an image I designed or a picture I took,  I'll include 'designed by mytwoblessings' on the image. If someone wants to borrow it, they just need to give me credit.   Example:  Courtesy of XXXX  with a link back to that person. 

 

Note the image I made with the stars in last weeks thread has a tiny 'designed by mytwoblessings' in the bottom right hand corner. 

 

SWB said book covers are okay.  For the time being, just post thumbnail images, not the big ones.   Absolutely no celebrities unless you've taken the picture yourself.  Until Susan gives the okay, we should avoid using other images unless they are of our own design. Start flexing those artistic muscles.   

 

 

[ChrisB]

This week I'm reading Band of Brothers by Stephan Ambrose, hat-tip mamaraby, and loving it.  The military details about who's in what company/unit/platoon/etc.. get a little lost on me, but I see them as trimming to the overall story.  I hope to finish it this week and move on to Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry, which is the October selection for my Well Read Mom book club.

[SunnyDays]

I haven't been around for a while, but I have been reading!  Yesterday, I read "The Paris Wife" by Paula McClain, and really liked it!  It's the fictionalized account of Hadley Richardson, the first wife of Ernest Hemingway, and their relationship.  So by armchair traveling to 1920's Paris, I guess I inadvertently hit upon the current theme!!  :D

 

Other than that, I've been reading a lot of Amish fiction and cozy mysteries.  I've completed 65 books this year!!

 

To continue in the setting of "The Paris Wife" I might read either something by Hemingway or perhaps "The Great Gatsby" next.

[Onceuponatime]

I'm almost through Jesus Interrupted by Bart Ehrman. The content is a little redundant for me, but I had never read it before. Next up is Half Magic.

[TeacherZee]

I finished Festive in Death by J. D. Robb this week. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as grim and heart breaking as they can be at times, and there were loads of sweet scenes.

 

Now I'm getting stuck into The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I've wanted to read it for quite some time but now it has become important as I am hoping to give my seniors excerpts of it to read when we do a unit on medical ethics later this year. If anyone has suggestions for other books on similar topics feel free to suggest away :)

[Jane in NC]

Hats off to Robin for maintaining these threads and doing additional research regarding "fair use"!

 

It has been an interesting week.

 

The Lad (former College Boy) was home briefly (five days!) from the UK then traveled to the Midwest where he has started a job as an archaeological field technician.  As he describes it, he is paid to hike in the woods where he looks for rock formations, pictographs or other cultural items and then digs the occasional test pit.  After one week he said, "I am getting paid for this!"  He is on the move.  His employer pays for his hotel and provides a meal per diem, a perfect opportunity to save money. It was lovely to Skype with him and see him looking so well.

 

Finishing HIld by Nicola Griffith, I think I am joining the company of fellow readers in this group who enjoyed certain aspects of the book but were baffled by others.  The first 50 or 100 pages of this chunkster take some patience.  Griffith uses Anglo-Saxon names and vocabulary which led me to consult regularly the glossary and the map provided in the book. The backdrop to the story is lush.  I mean Lush.  We hear the birds, we see the women weaving, we feel the fat grains in our fingers.  This was my favorite part of the novel.

 

But the plot itself?  Hmmm...Well, for one thing, this is a work of fiction about 7th century Saint Hilda of Whitby, a work more of speculative fiction than historical fiction since little is known of Hilda.  I will not doubt Griffith's scholarship into the time period but I cannot help but how much of the plot is more 21st century fantasy than reasonable historical speculation?  How much can happen to a twelve or thirteen old girl in a single year given the distances that must be traveled as rulers move throughout their kingdoms? 

 

Knowing we can include thumbnails, I shall venture back into graphic waters: 

 

Griffith gives a female character the opportunity to rise from the shadows (where they are usually painted in the time period) to become a political player.  I have no doubt that women often pulled the strings even if history has not remembered them in this way.  The politics are messy. Which is why I wish I had had more background.  (Dorothy Dunnett begins her sagas with a list of dramatis personae, indicating who is an historic figure and who is fictional.  Initially I wondered if this might help but then I remembered that Griffith does not have more than names and family trees for some of these historic figures. Dunnett may speculate but her fiction remains true in an historical context.)

 

Some of our gentle readers in this group would not be happy with Hild. 

 

I also finished listening to an Inspector Montalbano mystery, The Smell of the Night.  One of my favorite parts of these mysteries by Andrea Camilleri are the descriptions of the Sicilian food.  :drool5:

 

Sending everyone good wishes for the new week!

 

[Kareni]

Last night I finished the book The Longest Night by Kara Braden.  It was an interesting contemporary romance in that the heroine, an ex-Marine, was suffering from PTSD while the hero, a high powered criminal lawyer, was trying to overcome an addiction to pain pills.  There was significant adult content, so this book is not for every reader.

 

There's a lengthy review here.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[mumto2]

I have been reading Tasha Alexander's Dangerous to Know for several days now. I haven't had much reading time and this book makes me sleepy, reducing reading time even more! ;) Sends me to bed early every night. Close enough to done that I might finish it tonight.

 

I passed the 50% mark on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Still enjoying it but not in the mood to finish it so will keep going slowly.

 

I have started an interesting book that Stacia read a few weeks ago, The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero. I am enjoying it but it is not what I expected it to be at all. Very unusual structure....I think I may end up liking it quite a bit but at 33% still trying to figure out what is happening.

 

No progress on HotAW.

[Jane in NC]

No progress on HotAW.

 

You had to remind me.  I am on Chapter 35.

 

[Kareni]

No progress on HotAW.

 

 

You had to remind me.  I am on Chapter 35.

 

 

And I have yet to begin ....

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

 

Two questions. 1. What are your favorite novellas?   2. What books/stories can you think of that have the complex tragedy structure of Oedipus Rex - with the reversal and the recognition?

 

Hard questions.

 

I am not sure if I have a favorite novella but a younger me would have said The Fox by D.H. Lawrence. I have not read any Lawrence in years so I am not sure what I would think now.

 

One of the classic novellas that would make an excellent October read is The Turn of the Screw.  It has been years since I have read this Henry James work.

[MicheleinMN]

I finished The Secret Place by Tana French.  I do love the feelings she creates with her characters.  I think I will re-read or at least re-listen to Into the Woods sometime soon.  I'm listening to/reading Dracula.  Such a good book.  I had NO idea. Love it when I finally get around to a classic and am surprised by it!  

 

Thank you to all of you for the awesome book recommendations and to SWB for giving us a great place to share!

[JennW in SoCal]

You know you are an empty nester when you plan pool parties for your dog.  2 of my dog's little friends (the "golden girls" -- golden retrievers one and all) are coming over to swim in about 45 minutes, but it is for a good cause with the 100 degree weather and high (for us) humidity!  I don't have little canine ice cream treats or anything like that.  Give me a few years and it could happen, unless one of you comes and stages an intervention!   But the pool is the place to be on an afternoon like this and the humans will likely be in the water, too.  

 

I wrote last week that I loved A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute.  Didn't want it to end, even though I could see how it would end a mile away.  I'm about half way through a Lord Peter mystery, Unnatural Death, and I've still working on Jo Walton's What Makes This Book so Great.  

 

Hoping for a quieter week this week, here in BaW land.

[mumto2]

You know you are an empty nester when you plan pool parties for your dog. 2 of my dog's little friends (the "golden girls" -- golden retrievers one and all) are coming over to swim in about 45 minutes, but it is for a good cause with the 100 degree weather and high (for us) humidity! I don't have little canine ice cream treats or anything like that. Give me a few years and it could happen, unless one of you comes and stages an intervention! But the pool is the place to be on an afternoon like this and the humans will likely be in the water, too.

 

I wrote last week that I loved A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute. Didn't want it to end, even though I could see how it would end a mile away. I'm about half way through a Lord Peter mystery, Unnatural Death, and I've still working on Jo Walton's What Makes This Book so Great.

 

Hoping for a quieter week this week, here in BaW land.

We want pictures of the pool party!

[mumto2]

You had to remind me. I am on Chapter 35.

 

I am on chapter 35 too. Hoping to get around to it soon. Next year if we do the Middle Ages I am so buying the kindle version. I think half my problem is the book is so chunky. Just not what I want to hold first thing in the morning which is the only time I might finish it.

[Rosie_0801]

I'm up to chapter 24 of HoAW and will finish off this Islamic medicine book soon. It won't be too soon, either. 

[Melinda in VT]

I finished Festive in Death by J. D. Robb this week. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't as grim and heart breaking as they can be at times, and there were loads of sweet scenes.

 

Now I'm getting stuck into The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I've wanted to read it for quite some time but now it has become important as I am hoping to give my seniors excerpts of it to read when we do a unit on medical ethics later this year. If anyone has suggestions for other books on similar topics feel free to suggest away :)

For medical ethics, I recommend The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

[Melinda in VT]

I've been away from these threads for a while, and my reading pace reflects that.

 

I just finished The Moviegoer for my book club. Meh. The book that was reviewed on the back doesn't bear much resemblance to the book I read.

 

I also just finished Sunshine, which my daughter checked out from the library. Robin McKinley wrote a vampire novel?? Yes, yes she did, and it is as masterful as I expect from her. Not the book I'd hand my teen, but I'm not going to forbid her to read it.

[NoseInABook]

Halfway through The Good, The Bad, and The Undead. I've told myself not to start another until I finished this one because I keep getting all muddled lately. 

[Robin M]

No progress on HotAW.

 

 

You had to remind me.  I am on Chapter 35.

 

I am on chapter 35 too. Hoping to get around to it soon. Next year if we do the Middle Ages I am so buying the kindle version. I think half my problem is the book is so chunky. Just not what I want to hold first thing in the morning which is the only time I might finish it.

 

 

I'm up to chapter 24 of HoAW and will finish off this Islamic medicine book soon. It won't be too soon, either. 

You all are doing much much better than your fearless leader.  :blushing:

[Violet Crown]

Still going on Boswell's Life of Johnson. Slowed by a nasty virus that makes the words meaningless on the page. Homeschooling tomorrow will feature lots of reading to oneself while Mommy naps. I hope. Now for my appointment with Mr. Nyquil. Goodnight, ladies.

[Violet Crown]

I just finished The Moviegoer for my book club. Meh. The book that was reviewed on the back doesn't bear much resemblance to the book I read.

 

Walker Percy is overrated. Love in the Ruins was okay, but I don't get the Percy cult. Give me Brideshead Revisited instead, any day.

 

Bed now, really.

[MicheleinMN]

I've been away from these threads for a while, and my reading pace reflects that.

 

I just finished The Moviegoer for my book club. Meh. The book that was reviewed on the back doesn't bear much resemblance to the book I read.

 

I also just finished Sunshine, which my daughter checked out from the library. Robin McKinley wrote a vampire novel?? Yes, yes she did, and it is as masterful as I expect from her. Not the book I'd hand my teen, but I'm not going to forbid her to read it.

 

My older dd and I both like Robin McKinley, so I just ordered Sunshine for us to read.

 

Halfway through The Good, The Bad, and The Undead. I've told myself not to start another until I finished this one because I keep getting all muddled lately. 

 

This one is on my kindle and ipod, but I haven't started it yet.

[*Inna*]

Read "The Rook", it's been recommended in one of these threads. Loved it - such a fun read! It goes well with me watching Men In Black II this week. :)

 

"Color, a Natural History of the Palette" was fascinating. Definitely worth re-reading.

 

I just love the BAW threads, broadening my reading horizons! :D

[Stacia]

Crstarlette, my favorite novella is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

 

Michele, I love Dracula too & think it's pretty creepy considering when Stoker originally wrote it. It is one of the few books I have read multiple times.

 

Mumto2, hope you continue to enjoy The Supernatural Enhancements.

 

*Inna*, glad to hear you liked The Rook so much. I really enjoyed it when I read it & it kept me entertained through quite a few long waiting-at-the-orthodontist-for-dd visits.

 

Not reading anything right now. Eye burnout. The definite highlight of my BaW week was getting to meet & hang out with Jane!

[Stacia]

So glad you loved A Dream in Polar Fog, Eliana. Even with all the animal descriptions that would normally be hard for me, I was still awed by the book.

 

I saved two quotes from the book over on my Goodreads page; Eliana, I'm assuming you got a chuckle like I did from the assessment of writing in the second quote below... (Quotes from Yuri Rytkheu in his book A Dream in Polar Fog):

 

“People who live in cold climes must keep warm by kindness," Orvo spoke softly in reply. "I think that is how every person should be. Kindness -- it's the same as having a head, a nose, a pair of feet . . . There are many nations living on the earth. Each of their people carries a seed of suspicion toward those not of their own tribe. Oftentimes, they won't even see the people of another tribe as real human beings. . . .â€

 

and

 

“On a clean page, John set down Tiarat's name in large letters. The Chukcha picked up the sheet and took a long time scanning it, as though trying to discern the features of his own face within the letters' curves.

 

Pyl'mau, unable to contain her curiosity, looked over Tiarat's shoulder and suddenly said:

 

"Doesn't look like him at all."

 

"Why not?" Tiarat asked, insulted.

 

"In the middle, something is bulging there. But you're a well made, handsome man."

 

"True, true," Tiarat agreed. "Not exactly like me, you can see it right away.â€

[Ali in OR]

Lost a long post; here's a quick summary:

 

Finished: Mary Poppins, Generosity

 

Working on: I Shall Wear Midnight (treadmill), Excellent Sheep

 

Up next: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Shoemaker's Wife

 

HotAW: No progress, on chapter 29

[mumto2]

Still going on Boswell's Life of Johnson. Slowed by a nasty virus that makes the words meaningless on the page. Homeschooling tomorrow will feature lots of reading to oneself while Mommy naps. I hope. Now for my appointment with Mr. Nyquil. Goodnight, ladies.

 I hope you feel much better this morning!

 

 

My two favorite books from last week couldn't be more different:

 

 

A Dream in a Polar Fog by Yuri Rytkheu: This was a very immersive experience - and in a place and culture I haven't 'visited' before.  Highly recommended - thank you, Stacia!

 

 

 

Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant: This is an embarrassingly 'dusty' book.  I started the first chapter a long time ago, but had to set it aside and never came back to it, until now.  The blurbs assert it to be an Austen/Eliot mashup, only better... which I cannot agree with, but it is a delightful, at times hilarious, Victorian novel... a little like Trollope, perhaps, though with less moralizing (not to disparage Trollope, of whom I am very fond)

 

 

I read an Arthur Miller play I seem to have not read before The Price (I don't know how long it has been sitting neglected on my American Lit shelf!).  Searing and powerful, though not as amazing as All My Sons or Incident at Vichy (my favorite Millers), nor as well crafted as the justly renowned Crucible and Death of a Salesman... but even a minor Miller is special.

 

The other three books were rereads, of varying vintages:

 

Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh: I read this as a teenager, I believe, far, far too young for it, but my appreciation this time through was a little hampered by having read Aviator's Wife this year and having Lindbergh's personal life flashing into my mind as I read... but still beautiful.

 

Rainmaker by Nash: This is a very sweet play in so many ways, and I enjoyed it again... but... oh, but... that the overarching theme of trust and belief in oneself, etc should for the female character revolve around her perception of her physical self, her 'beauty', really bothered me this time around.  The actual words around it are positive - but it carries, despite itself, a lot of cultural baggage...

 

A Unknown Ajax by Heyer: I have a great fondness for this one - it clunks a bit here and there, but is very sweet... and the climactic scene is very fun.

I just requested both Miss Marjoribanks and The Unjust Ajax. They look like something both dd and I might enjoy. Our combined stack is getting low because dd has read them all and passed them on to me. It is supposed to work the other way.......

[Pam in CT]

VC, I hope Dr Nyquil did the trick and you got a good night's sleep.  Feel better soon.

 

 

 

For medical ethics, I recommend The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

:iagree:  I was blown out of the water by this book (Anne Fadiman - about a Hmong family with a profoundly disabled child and their encounters with the US medical system).  It's one of those books that shows you that what you see depends on where you stand... So, so good.

 

 

 

re: Dream in a Polar Fog:

So glad you loved A Dream in Polar Fog, Eliana. Even with all the animal descriptions that would normally be hard for me, I was still awed by the book.

I saved two quotes from the book ... (Quotes from Yuri Rytkheu in his book A Dream in Polar Fog):

<snip>

“On a clean page, John set down Tiarat's name in large letters. The Chukcha picked up the sheet and took a long time scanning it, as though trying to discern the features of his own face within the letters' curves.

Pyl'mau, unable to contain her curiosity, looked over Tiarat's shoulder and suddenly said:

"Doesn't look like him at all."

"Why not?" Tiarat asked, insulted.

"In the middle, something is bulging there. But you're a well made, handsome man."

"True, true," Tiarat agreed. "Not exactly like me, you can see it right away.â€

How fabulous is this?? It reminds me a bit of my 11 yo's current favorite T shirt, riffing off of Fault in Our Stars, which has a line drawing of a pipe emblazoned with "Ce n'est pas un pipe"  .  Adding Polar Dreams to the TBR list.

 

 

Speaking of which, I have arrived today at one of my least favorite episodic tasks: I've finished one journal, and am starting a fresh one, and have now to copy over all my various TBR book lists from the old to the new.  It is an interesting psychological process, because it's a moment of self-truth, of confessing to myself that "I'm not really going to read that, am I?" and culling it.  VC, I don't think Ullyses is going to make it for me either.

[Uff Da!]

Just dropping in quick to give my reading update:  I finished "The Last Unicorn" and really enjoyed it.  It is very well written and I didn't expect it to be (I'm not sure why I thought it would be poorly written).

 

I'm not sure what I'm going to read next.  With school and lessons starting up again, I'm like that muppet, the Swedish Chef one, throwing things in the air and watching them fall where they will.  In addition to that, I am refitting all my trousers, jeans, and skirts.  Apparently running changes a person's shape.  It's not as big a job as I thought it would be but it still takes time.

 

My best to all of you!  

[Pam in CT]

And the books-

 

I listened to Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor was Divine.  I really enjoyed her Buddha in the Attic a couple years ago; this is her first novel, and very good.  It's about a family of Japanese descent caught up in the internment roundup.  It's told from the perspective of each family member in turn, and the voice of the first section -- the mother's perspective -- is especially good; an extremely controlled, simple sentence structure that evoked the best of Hemingway's style without the attendant nonsense.  Excellent for YA-age kids though it's not been marketed for that audience.

 

Also The Soul of the Rhino, a memoir of western-educated Nepali conservationist Hematra Mishra.  He has unusual insights into both the biological imperatives and the development impact aspects s of conservation challenge; his narrative of having to participate in a ceremonial royal rhino hunt deemed by traditionalists to be necessary to ratify / bless / legitimize the new king's rule was particularly poignant.

 

I gave up on Proverbs and did Ecclesiastes instead.  With the waning sun and the resumption of the daily driving grind, it evidently better matched my mood...

 

 

 

And still in progress:

 

Well, and speaking of driving, my son and I are listening to Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch on our way back and forth to his school.  Oh.my.word.  Y'all have been talking up both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for ages, and I don't know why I took so long to get to the party.  Laugh.out.loud.  The setting involves a misplaced-at-birth antichrist and an angel and demon who've both been around since the Beginning and have grown over time so fond of books and art, and wine and song (respectively) that neither is especially looking forward to the End of Time...

 

I just started The Golden Ass at VC's suggestion.  I have to re-read Reza Aslan's Zealot for one of my book groups (sigh -- I didn't care for it when it came out and very much doubt it'll be any better the second time around); and my daughter reminded me that we didn't quite get to the finish line of King of Attolia, so we're plodding to the end of that before we start up Wrinkle in Time.  (We enjoyed the first two very much but the narrative has either lost its way, or it's gone too subtle for either of us.)

 

ETA to fix link and add: also working on Khaled Khalifa's In Praise of Hatred.  Jury's still out.

[Jane in NC]

And the books-

 

I listened to Julie Otsuka's When the Emperor was Divine.  I really enjoyed her Buddha in the Attic a couple years ago; this is her first novel, and very good.  It's about a family of Japanese descent caught up in the internment roundup.  It's told from the perspective of each family member in turn, and the voice of the first section -- the mother's perspective -- is especially good; an extremely controlled, simple sentence structure that evoked the best of Hemingway's style without the attendant nonsense.  Excellent for YA-age kids though it's not been marketed for that audience.

 

Also The Soul of the Rhino, a memoir of western-educated Nepali conservationist Hematra Mishra.  He has unusual insights into both the biological imperatives and the development impact aspects s of conservation challenge; his narrative of having to participate in a ceremonial royal rhino hunt deemed by traditionalists to be necessary to ratify / bless / legitimize the new king's rule was particularly poignant.

 

I gave up on Proverbs and did Ecclesiastes instead.  With the waning sun and the resumption of the daily driving grind, it evidently better matched my mood...

 

 

 

And still in progress:

 

Well, and speaking of driving, my son and I are listening to Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch on our way back and forth to his school.  Oh.my.word.  Y'all have been talking up both Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for ages, and I don't know why I took so long to get to the party.  Laugh.out.loud.  The setting involves a misplaced-at-birth antichrist and an angel and demon who've both been around since the Beginning and have grown over time so fond of books and art, and wine and song (respectively) that neither is especially looking forward to the End of Time...

 

I just started The Golden Ass at VC's suggestion.  I have to re-read Reza Aslan's Zealot for one of my book groups (sigh -- I didn't care for it when it came out and very much doubt it'll be any better the second time around); and my daughter reminded me that we didn't quite get to the finish line of King of Attolia, so we're plodding to the end of that before we start up Wrinkle in Time.  (We enjoyed the first two very much but the narrative has either lost its way, or it's gone too subtle for either of us.)

 

Pam, your Good Omens link goes elsewhere.  Just to let you know.

 

 

[Pam in CT]

Pam, your Good Omens link goes elsewhere.  Just to let you know.

 

 

 

Thanks.  I think I fixed it now.

[Kim in Appalachia]

I'm finished Dust, by Hugh Howey.  It was the 3rd book in the trilogy that had started with Wool.  I liked it.  I wasnt' sure where he was going to go at the end.  It could have went a couple of ways, and I liked the ending. He tells a good story, which is fun to jump into. 

 

I'm continuing to read The Pearl that Broke it's Shell, by Hashimi.  The writing is ok, but it's an interesting story.  I always enjoy diving into other cultures.

 

Pam, I'm glad you liked Good Omens.  It is a funny read (or read-aloud).  Love Gaiman and Practchett.  I'm glad they were able to do a book together.  

 

I'm unsure what my favorite novella is.  I know I enjoyed The Great Gatsby, and The Old Man and the Sea (I was suprised how much I enjoyed that). 

 

As for books with a revearsal and recognition, my first thought was Jane Eyre,  I also thought of Kafka on the Shore, by Murakami, whose storyline is half based on Oedipus Rex.

[LostSurprise]

Now I'm getting stuck into The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I've wanted to read it for quite some time but now it has become important as I am hoping to give my seniors excerpts of it to read when we do a unit on medical ethics later this year. If anyone has suggestions for other books on similar topics feel free to suggest away :)

 

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down (already mentioned), although I felt her understanding of this form of epilepsy was a little vague and that adversely affected her understanding of the medical side (my son has the same syndrome Lia had) she did a great job of showing Hmong beliefs and the difficulty in medically serving different cultures.

 

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It's a biography/investigative piece on Dr. Paul Farmer, who is kind of a modern agnostic saint/crusader who took his Harvard degree and set up shop in rural Haiti. He even parlayed that into an international health organization designed to stop diseases in the places that need the most help...usually poverty stricken areas. Paul Farmer also has a few books on my to-read list about power/inequality/and health. 

 

 

Griffith gives a female character the opportunity to rise from the shadows (where they are usually painted in the time period) to become a political player.  I have no doubt that women often pulled the strings even if history has not remembered them in this way.  The politics are messy. Which is why I wish I had had more background.  (Dorothy Dunnett begins her sagas with a list of dramatis personae, indicating who is an historic figure and who is fictional.  Initially I wondered if this might help but then I remembered that Griffith does not have more than names and family trees for some of these historic figures. Dunnett may speculate but her fiction remains true in an historical context.)

 

 

I thought the family tree in the front was helpful...and the map. I had to revisit both often. 

 

I loved the beginning detail of Hild, but I had difficulty believing parts of the second half. 

 

[ElaineJ]

I have been missing from this thread all summer and have missed you all! I read Bleak House (Dickens) and Villette (Bronte) back to back, and while I enjoyed them both I am ready to move on from Victorian novels for a bit. :) I am currently reading Will in the World by Greenblatt, which is a very speculative (of course!) but highly entertaining biography of Shakespeare. I am also reading How to Read a Book alongside my son so we can discuss, which I am finding useful but (frankly) a bit boring. I was amused to read this sentence from HTRaB today: "It is a grave error, for example, to try to psychoanalyze Shakespeare from the evidence in Hamlet." I completely agree, and yet that is exactly what Will in the World is doing and why it is so much fun!

Elaine

[Pam in CT]

... I am also reading How to Read a Book alongside my son so we can discuss, which I am finding useful but (frankly) a bit boring. I was amused to read this sentence from HTRaB today: "It is a grave error, for example, to try to psychoanalyze Shakespeare from the evidence in Hamlet." I completely agree, and yet that is exactly what Will in the World is doing and why it is so much fun!...

Actually, for years I kept How to Read a Book on my bedside table as an antidote to insomnia.  So sorry, SWB.

[Stacia]

VC, hope you are feeling better quickly!

 

Yay, Pam, re: Good Omens! One of my favorite books! I think it really capitalizes on the best of both authors. You're going to love the four horsemen of the apocalypse, lol.

 

Ok, I never thought of The Great Gatsby being a novella, but if it is, add it to my list of favorite novellas. I think you could put Rosie down for it too. ;-p

[Stacia]

Oh, I love Magritte. And I would post a pic of his or two, if I could...

[LostSurprise]

My laptop is broken and shuts down randomly every 30m or less, so this will be short...because I've written it out once or twice already. :P

 

Read: 

 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline~If you are 40 +or- 5 years and a big geek you will probably enjoy this. It's virtual reality adventure and quest which delves heavily into the '80s (bands, movies, tv, computers, D&D, manga, video games). It's so nostalgic I had to laugh sometimes. It does begin with some dystopia but don't let that put you off, in a few chapters it's in the adventure and anything-can-happen virtual reality. 

 

Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky~Classic Soviet SciFi from the '60s. Tarkovsky made a well-known movie (loosely) based on this called Stalker. Aliens make a pitstop on Earth, but not in any form we can visualize or communicate with, and leave behind 4 Zones filled with off-physics, dangerous objects, and possible treasures. Scavengers known as Stalkers sneak into the restricted areas and scavenge alien tech for the black market. The story follows a particular Stalker named Red, real macho guy, from young man to middle age. Dark, everything feels inevitable and no one is really trustworthy. The end was difficult, but with further thought I think it was realistic for what the character was going through. 

 

Equoid by Charles Stross~I think this won an award for novella or short story and it was free for the Kindle with the other nominees a few months ago so I downloaded all of them. This follows the same character and subject matter as The Atrocity Files which dh and I read earlier this year. Basically Math, the Occult, and Computer Science converge in this reality and a secret British government organization called the Laundry deals with this convergence before it wrecks havoc on the world. This case involves HP Lovecraft (very humorously lampooned) and turns the unicorn mythos on it's head. Obviously they are totally horrific, carnivorous beasties from beyond Space-Time which have developed a parasitic relationship with young girls. Yeah. I'm not sure you want to know more. Much better written than the last one I read by him. Funny as all get out, especially if you're familiar with Lovecraft, but let's just say you probably don't want to know about the reproductive habits of unicorns and how they manipulate their host species. Although that might explain a lot about Lovecraft. Whatever you do don't go in the barn with Lovecraft!

 

Working on:

 

The Castle of Otranto

finishing some stuff

finding some new stuff

[Onceuponatime]

I finished Half Magic. It was cute but not life changing. :-)

 

I'm now working on Pardonable Lies, a Maisie Dobbs mystery.

[Angel]

Slowed by a nasty virus that makes the words meaningless on the page. Homeschooling tomorrow will feature lots of reading to oneself while Mommy naps. I hope. Now for my appointment with Mr. Nyquil. Goodnight, ladies.

 

:grouphug:   Hope you are feeling better soon!  I'm on the downside of what I thought were allergies but was instead a nasty cold.  Still struggling with some nasty chest congestion.  I just slept 2 hours.  There are perks to having only a 14yo to school.

[Angel]

I finished book #40 Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson yesterday.  I was highly anticipating this novel after loving her first book, Edenbrooke, but I was a little disappointed.  I did not care for the heroine of the story for the first quarter, maybe third, of the book.  She came across as selfish and too determined to get her way no matter the cost.  This is the reason I could not like Divergent.  I couldn't care for Tris.  Anyway, as I kept reading, the story eventually began divulging the past and finally began to make some sense.  Honestly, if I was writing this story, I would have given the reader some of the past earlier on.  Not enough to give the plot away, but enough to realize why our heroine would be acting the way she was.  Without that back story, she was simply unlikeable.   I also thought the author brought in a couple plot lines that she just left hanging which was frustrating.  I was excited about the new twist I thought she was going to take and then nothing.  All that being said, I couldn't put it down near the end.  Her first book was one of my favorites two years ago.  She caught me up in the story right away which is why I was able to ignore some of the things that Amy didn't like about it.  However, with this book, because she couldn't get me connected with the heroine or the story line, I noticed the language that was decidedly not Regency as well as the lack of follow through with the plot lines.  So it gets a 3 star from me, only because I was not able to put it down at the end.  

 

Still working on The Wizard of Oz and needing to start The Mysterious Benedict Society for our co-op class.

[mumto2]

I spent my day reading Irene by Pierre Lemaitre. :) Obviously I really liked it because I finished it. http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/book/Irene-by-Pierre-Lemaitre-ISBN_9780857052889#.VBdipurD8v4 It is the first in a trilogy translated from French.

 

Yes Jane, a French dective novel set in Paris. The second book was released in English before the first apparently.....for me this is good because I hope to have the second one by the end of the week. I need to know what happens next.

 

The book's main character is a police detective who is very short (midget) which makes the book unusual. He becomes involved in a series of murders which are mirroring famous mystery books--never read the chosen books but they all appear to exist. I really can't say more without spoiling it. If you are interested don't look at goodread's reviews due to a spoiler imo. There are disturbing descriptions but I didn't find it to be as bad as the reviews led me to believe.

[Jane in NC]

I spent my day reading Irene by Pierre Lemaitre. :) Obviously I really liked it because I finished it. http://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/book/Irene-by-Pierre-Lemaitre-ISBN_9780857052889#.VBdipurD8v4 It is the first in a trilogy translated from French.

 

Yes Jane, a French dective novel set in Paris. The second book was released in English before the first apparently.....for me this is good because I hope to have the second one by the end of the week. I need to know what happens next.

 

The book's main character is a police detective who is very short (midget) which makes the book unusual. He becomes involved in a series of murders which are mirroring famous mystery books--never read the chosen books but they all appear to exist. I really can't say more without spoiling it. If you are interested don't look at goodread's reviews due to a spoiler imo. There are disturbing descriptions but I didn't find it to be as bad as the reviews led me to believe.

 

This looks great!  Thank you!

 

[Rosie_0801]

Pah! (That's an Auslan word)

 

I've finally finished book 40,  "Healing with the Medicine of the Prophet," by Imam Ibn Qayyim Al-Jauziyah

 

And I am glad to be done with it. 

[Stacia]

Am reading a Europa editions book, Love Burns by Edna Mazya.

 

From Kirkus Reviews:

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/edna-mazya/love-burns/

 

"This darkly funny first novel by Israeli playwright Mazya combines the suspense of a murder mystery with the absurdity of a Woody Allen movie.

 

The narrator/hero is Ilan Ben Nathan, a dithering, self-critical professor of astrophysics who at 48 rashly marries a sexy beauty of 25. The narrative voice is captivating—surprising considering that the professor is an ungrateful mama’s boy. (“I can always dump everything I spare others on [my mother] which is her only good point,†he candidly observes.) There’s good evidence that he has become a slacker at work and, until the moment he snaps, humiliatingly ineffectual in encounters with his wife’s intimidatingly virile lover, whom Ilan forlornly describes as resembling Nick Nolte. Nevertheless, Ilan’s honesty, curiosity and weary concern for his fellow beings endear him to the reader, as when he sees toddlers at a nursery school, “standing pressed to the fence, waiting for their mothers to come and fetch them, worn out and helpless at the end of a day of exhausting survival.†The charm of this work lies in the author’s adroit use of her powers to observe and analyze human behavior. As her characters grapple with one another, she is aware of what each seeks to gain: The play of short-lived emotions—the impulse toward self-pity, or generosity, or resignation, or anger—bring her narrative to life. Capable of the subtlest poignancy at one moment, Mazya shocks us with the most savage humor the next—but always with a gleeful sense of the power of human beings to astonish one another with their ingenuity, their passion, their foolishness.

 

The cleverness and vitality of this narrative made it a bestseller in Israel, as it should be here. Mazya describes one brilliant character as “original without being eccentric.†It’s praise she deserves herself."

[shukriyya]

:seeya: everyone. Resurfacing...

 

This is what I've not been reading this past week :: True Refuge, Claire of the Sea Light, Beyond the Myth and The Ivy Tree

 

Favorite novella, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye.