Robin M Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Today marks the beginning of book Week 23 of our quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks. It is time to start book # 24. (If you haven't already.) :) We are almost halfway. To recap the rules: Read an average of a book a week - 52 books in 52 weeks Re-reading a book counts--as long as you first read it before 2009 School related books don't count (unless you want them to. You may post your reviews, thoughts, reactions to the books you've read here or on the 52 Books in 52 Weeks Blog. ******************************************* My next book will be a non fiction one: Sarah Palin: A New Kind of Leader by Joe Hilley. As you can imagine, I wanted to read this book last year because I was curious about her. I had planned on reading it for Winter Reading Challenge but didn't get around to it. When I mentioned passing on the book, the author Joe Hilley actually emailed me to find out why I was passing. How embarrasing is that. I assured him it was because it was a mood thing and I would be reading it eventually. Well now is the time. What interesting books are you reading this week? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sojourner Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Week 23: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society --- I give a 5***** recommendation for this perfectly delightful gem of a book!!!!! Week 22: Summer Reading by Hilma Wolitzer Week 21: The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop: A Memoir, A History by Lewis Buzbee Week 20: Ten Things I Wish I'd Known Before I Went Out Into the Real World by Maria Shriver Week 19: Lost in America by Isaac Bashevis Singer (do not bother to read this--UGH!) Week 18: Libby: The Alaskan Diaries and Letters of Libby Beaman, 1879-1880, as presented by her Granddaughter Betty John. Week 17: Without a Trace by Colleen Coble. Week 16: On Colfax Avenue: A Victorian Childhood by Elizabeth Young Week 15: One Woman Against the Reich by Helmut W. Ziefle Week 14: Index to Murder by Jo Dereske Week 13: Jane Austen in Scarsdale by Paula Marantz Cohen Week 12: Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff Week 11: Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return to His Jewish Family by Stephen J. Dubner Week 10: Body in the Bouillon by Katherine Hall Page Week 9: Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah Week 8: The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester Week 7: The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff Week 6: Shelf Life by Suzanne Stempek Shea Week 5: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Week 4: Mosaic by Amy Grant Week 3: The Faith Club by Idilby, Oliver and Warner Week 2: The Body in the Kelp by Katherine Hall Page Week 1: Nightingales: The Extraordinary Upbringing and Curious Life of Miss Florence Nightingale by Gillian Gill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoraida Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Week 1: The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch Week 2: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Week 3: The Book and the Brotherhood by Iris Murdoch Week 4: The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie Week 5: The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie Week 6: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Week 7: Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie Week 8: Paper Towns by John Green Week 9: Eva Trout by Elizabeth Bowen Week 10: Saville by David Storey Week 11: The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald Week 12: Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald Week 13: The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt Week 14: Clear Light of Day by Anita Desai Week 15: The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas Week 16: What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn Week 17: Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner Week 18: Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith Week 19: Cat's Eye by Margaret Atwood Week 20: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Week 21: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood Week 22: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood Week 23: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro Blessings Zoraida Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I am going to read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (I think that is the correct spelling). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I'm reading An American Haunting: The Bell Witch by Brent Monahan. I'm not too far into it yet, but it's good! I love ghost stories, and this one is a well-documented, allegedly true haunting from the 1800s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I am going to read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (I think that is the correct spelling). That one is really good. I finished it about a week ago. I hope you enjoy it :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 Week 23: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society --- I give a 5***** recommendation for this perfectly delightful gem of a book!!!!! Glad to hear that because I picked it up at Costco yesterday and am starting it this weekend! I'm currently on book number 20something which is a really great, readable, entertaining, fascinating and educational science book called Death By Black Hole by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. My 14yo had recommended it to me and I am enjoying it so much more than I had imagined and am geeking out over all the cool science facts. I'm looking forward to having more reading time over the next few months and hoping to find more great titles from the rest of y'all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 31 Dream Street by Lisa Jewell. Really good for what I expected to be a silly novel. :) Rosie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crissy Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. I was loving it until page 62. There was a surprise for which I was not emotionally prepared, so I haven't picked it up again. Maybe tonight. By the way, what's wrong with me?! I can't believe I was so terribly disturbed by an event in a work of fiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nakia Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 That one is really good. I finished it about a week ago. I hope you enjoy it :001_smile: I started The Lovely Bones tonight. It is disturbing. I am having a hard time with it. I do want to hang in there because I know a lot of people IRL and here have read it and recommend it. It is breaking my heart though. I just got done reading another disturbing book (Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory) so I think next time I am going to pick something fun! Has anybody read the vampire books by Charlaine Harris? What did you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crissy Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 (edited) I started The Lovely Bones tonight. It is disturbing. I am having a hard time with it. I loved that book. My brother was murdered, and reading that book gave me an odd sense of hope. Hope that he knew how much I loved him even though I didn't say it enough. Hope that he knew what sort of hole there was in our lives because he was gone... I thought Alice Sebold did a beautiful job of capturing the unique distresses experience by various family members after such an event. Edited June 12, 2009 by Crissy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Virginia Dawn Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Just finished The City of Dreaming Books- Moers, and The People of the Book- Brook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I'm way behind as far as book a week but I did fit in another Chiam Potok book, "In the Beginning." Great book, awesome character development. I didn't really care for the main character but I am mesmerized by the setting. Again, a book about eastern Europe and America before, during and after WWII. Great discussion of historical criticism (again). I have another waiting to get read: The Book of Lights (I think that's the name) but need a brain break. Still toiling through Climbing Parnassus. I love it. I have posted about books I've read this year on my blog under Weekly Readers. I doubt I"ll get to 52 this year, even counting my read-aloud chapter books! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I'm way behind as far as book a week but I did fit in another Chiam Potok book, "In the Beginning." Great book, awesome character development. I didn't really care for the main character but I am mesmerized by the setting. Again, a book about eastern Europe and America before, during and after WWII. Great discussion of historical criticism (again). I have another waiting to get read: The Book of Lights (I think that's the name) but need a brain break. Still toiling through Climbing Parnassus. I love it. I have posted about books I've read this year on my blog under Weekly Readers. I doubt I"ll get to 52 this year, even counting my read-aloud chapter books! :001_smile: I read In the Beginning as a teenager and loved it. I still have my copy. I know everyone points to The Chosen or My Name is Asher Lev when Potok's name comes up, but In the Beginning is my favorite of all his novels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melinda in VT Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 Has anybody read the vampire books by Charlaine Harris? What did you think? I read one a couple of months ago. To be honest, I kept thinking that Buffy the Vampire Slayer told a much better story and Angel was a more compelling "good" vampire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted June 12, 2009 Share Posted June 12, 2009 I started The Lovely Bones tonight. It is disturbing. I am having a hard time with it. I do want to hang in there because I know a lot of people IRL and here have read it and recommend it. It is breaking my heart though. I just got done reading another disturbing book (Respectable Trade by Philippa Gregory) so I think next time I am going to pick something fun! Has anybody read the vampire books by Charlaine Harris? What did you think? The Lovely Bones is disturbing, but it's also beautiful and hopeful too. It is a heavy subject matter, and I know what you mean about needing something fun after reading a couple of heavy books back-to-back. I've read Charlaine Harris' vampire books. Initially I wasn't crazy about them, but that's because I read the first one shortly after I devoured the Twilight series. So many people told me that there were a ton of similarities, so I went in expecting that. They are very different series! Charlaine Harris' books were more of a light read (a couple of hours/book) and they were more adult in nature (s*xual content). They are definitely entertaining, and after my mind adjusted to the fact that it wasn't Twilight, I enjoyed them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristiana Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 Hey, I'm only a week behind! I thought it was more than that. I suppose with all the lounging around I've been doing due to morning sickness I'm catching up on my reading. Alas, that is the only thing I'm caught up on at the moment. Let's not even mention the housecleaning. ;) I haven't posted for a while but here's a few books I've finished recently: Our Sacred Honor and The Times That Try Men's Souls --books 2 and 3 of Prelude to Glory, a Revolutionary War series of 9 books. I'm not quite finished with book 3 yet. Homeschooling by Gregory and Martine Millman--an interesting and quick read on their hs journey with 6 kids, 3 of which are now in college. The getting into college chapter was especially good as were their thoughts on travel as homeschool. The Thomas Jefferson Education Home Companion--meh, another quick read with a few good essays and a few good tips to try, but I have some major disagreements with some basic TJed ways of thinking that I just can't get past. I'd forgotten I'd put it on hold at the library some time ago but figured I might as well read when it came in. Next up is The 5000 Year Leap and I really need to read Henry V before we go see it in August at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. We're also about to start Ronia the Robber's Daughter as a read-aloud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I am going to read The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (I think that is the correct spelling). I just read this last week. It is very good. Someone said to me that this books was a study on grief. I agree with that summary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiegirl Posted June 13, 2009 Share Posted June 13, 2009 I'm ahead of the game here. I can't remember, though, whether I am starting Book #25 or 26. :confused: Anyway, I finished Beautiful Boy by David Sheff. This is a father's take on his son's meth addiction. I am now reading The Lightening Thief by Rick Riordan. I am enjoying this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nan in Mass Posted June 16, 2009 Share Posted June 16, 2009 Running list: The Bell at Sealey Head Alphabet of Thorn Od Magic In the Forests of Serre Coffe, Tea, and Me The Tower at Stony Wood Music of the Dolphin My Blue Castle The Eye of the Heron Fools Run Learning to Bow Mansfield Park What Shamu Taught Me About Love and Marriage A Wind in Cairo Silver Pigs Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Chosen Dealing with Dragons Don't Shoot the Dog Most recently I've read: A Wind in Cairo Silver Pigs Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Chosen Dealing with Dragons Don't Shoot the Dog Some of these were old favourites read for comfort so I could fall asleep at night. The Chosen was because I was curious, since other people were reading and loving it. Silver Pigs was an old favourite that I read escape style - whenever I had two seconds during which I didn't want to think and remember that my middle sweetheart was leaving. And Don't Shoot the Dog was a very useful book that I mostly already knew (since my parents did this, and their parents, and their parents ...) but was nice to see all written out in one place. I wish I had read it while I was pregnant with my first. I'm aquiring quite a list of those things LOL... Conceptual Physics, Conceptual Chemistry, Don't Shoot the Dog, The Five Love Languages of Teenagers... -Nan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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