Book a Week in 2010 - Week 34

[Robin M]

Today is the start of book week 34 and the quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Have you started Book # 34 yet? Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 books blog and ready for you to link to your reviews.

 

52 Books blog - History graphically. Not violently graphical but comic book graphical. I discovered some history and science graphic novels recently. Fascinating and hopefully will lead James to wanting to find out more. I was never a big fan of comic books growing up, but son loves them- especially the Bionicles, so we'll see where this leads. Do your kids like graphic novels?

 

What are you reading this week?

[Robin M]

I'm currently reading The Darkest Kiss by Keri Arthur, book # 6 in the Riley Jensen Guardian series. It's a paranormal romance. I'm reading it on my nook. I've discovered I'm using it so much more than originally thought I would. Glad to say I'm getting my monies worth.

[WiseOwlKnits]

Neither of my kids has never seen a graphic novel, but they're still young.

 

This week I finished The Prophet of Yonwood and The Diamond of Darkhold, books 3 and 4 of the City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau. They were 32 and 33 for me so I'm caught up. YAY!!!

 

I finished book 4 last night and haven't started anything yet. I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins on Tuesday and am contemplating not starting else till after I'm done with it.

 

I'm also waiting to get The Passage by Justin Cronin from the library. A few people lately have told me that it's awesome and I'm hoping that it is! It must be pretty good since our library system owns almost 90 copies and yet I'm #38 on the reserve list.

Edited August 22, 2010 by Hill Country Classical Academy
forgot to add a link

[Jane in NC]

Oh my! It has been ages since I have posted in these threads but I have been reading. Among the titles:

 

A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka--a tale of romance and transformation set in Poland

 

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel by Boris Akunkin--The detective is a Russian Orthodox Nun; the setting is turn of the 20th century Russia.

 

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba--Oh the power of books! How a young man used old texts and ingenuity to bring windpower to his village in Malawi.

 

The Jewel in the Crown, the first in the series by Paul Scott known as the Raj Quartet--I'll finish the rest of the series over the fall.

 

Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound-- I guess that title says it all.

 

Up at the Villa by Somerset Maugham which proved to be a surprisingly good airplane read.

 

Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever--I thought that this book by the author of Up in the Air (Walter Kirn) might be interesting. Ugh..don't bother.

 

Funny you should mention graphic novels. I was planning on reading Road to Perdition (the graphic novel from which the film was adapted) this week.

Edited August 22, 2010 by Jane in NC

[Stacia]

This past week, I finished The Blind Contessa's New Machine. I was still reading Physics of the Impossible, but the library due date was up & I couldn't renew it because there were holds. So, I'll have to get that one again & finish it.

 

Currently, I'm reading:

 

 

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk and Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.

 

Books I've read in 2010: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time; Good Omens; The Palace of Dreams; Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World; Lying Awake; The Remains of the Day; Iron & Silk; Lottery; The City of Dreaming Books; Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel; Clutter Busting: Letting Go of What's Holding You Back; The Power of Less; Stop Clutter from Stealing Your Life; The Bonesetter's Daughter; Life of Pi; Orphans Preferred: The Twisted Truth and Lasting Legend of the Pony Express; Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide; Waiting for Snow in Havana; The Happiness Project; Ella Minnow Pea: A Progressively Lipogrammatic Epistolary Fable; The Dante Club; Conquering Chronic Disorganization; City of Thieves; Throw Out Fifty Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life; Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen; Dead Until Dark; The Color of Magic; Fernande; Special Topics in Calamity Physics; Medicus; The Blind Contessa's New Machine

 

YA Books I've read in 2010: The Anybodies; The Wee Free Men; The Nobodies; Something Wickedly Weird: The Wooden Mile; Zorgamazoo; A Hat Full of Sky; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon; Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure; Alice's Adventures Under Ground

[Stacia]

comic book graphical. I discovered some history and science graphic novels recently. Fascinating and hopefully will lead James to wanting to find out more. I was never a big fan of comic books growing up, but son loves them- especially the Bionicles, so we'll see where this leads. Do your kids like graphic novels?

 

I was never much into comic books growing up, but my sister was. We all joke that she got most of her education through Archie comics. :lol: (Truthfully, when we traveled in Europe when she was middle school age, she knew a ton of things. When we would ask how she knew that info, it was usually because of something she had read in an Archie comic.)

 

Dh (a Belgian) grew up loving TinTin.

 

My newphew has been very into comic/graphic novels for a few years (stuff like Sonic the Hedgehog, manga, etc...).

 

Dd is not really into graphic novels/comics, but ds enjoys that kind of thing. (He's a huge fan of the "Get Fuzzy" comic series & is now starting to get into "Calvin & Hobbes".)

 

Both dc love the Good Times Travel Agency series (great for history).

 

I did read part of the Death Note manga series last year (per nephew's request) & enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I wouldn't mind trying more, if anyone has any great suggestions....

 

This week I finished The Prophet of Yonwood and The Diamond of Darkhold, books 3 and 4 of the City of Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau. They were 32 and 33 for me so I'm caught up. YAY!!!

...

I'm also waiting to get The Passage by Justin Cronin from the library. A few people lately have told me that it's awesome and I'm hoping that it is! It must be pretty good since our library system owns almost 90 copies and yet I'm #38 on the reserve list.

 

Dd just finished book #2 in the City of Ember series.

 

The Passage sounds creepy! Be sure to post a review once you read it.

 

A Long, Long Time Ago and Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka--a tale of romance and transformation set in Poland

 

Sister Pelagia and the Red Cockerel by Boris Akunkin--The detective is a Russian Orthodox Nun; the setting is turn of the 20th century Russia.

 

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba--Oh the power of books! How a young man used old texts and ingenuity to bring windpower to his village in Malawi.

 

The Jewel in the Crown, the first in the series by Paul Scott known as the Raj Quartet--I'll finish the rest of the series over the fall.

 

Cape Wind: Money, Celebrity, Class, Politics, and the Battle for Our Energy Future on Nantucket Sound-- I guess that title says it all.

 

Up at the Villa by Somerset Maugham which proved to be a surprisingly good airplane read.

 

Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever--I thought that this book by the author of Up in the Air (Walter Kirn) might be interesting. Ugh..don't bother.

 

Funny you should mention graphic novels. I was planning on reading Road to Perdition (the graphic novel from which the film was adapted) this week.

 

Jane, your reading lists always sound so interesting. I'm going to see if the library here carries any of these titles...

[Jane in NC]

Jane, your reading lists always sound so interesting. I'm going to see if the library here carries any of these titles...

 

The two that I recommend very highly are A Long, Long Time Ago and The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. If my son was not going off to college, I would assign the latter to him.

 

A Long, Long Time Ago just delighted me. The chapters weave two tales, one from the Nazi occupation, a second of modern Poland with a society that is still recovering from both the Nazis and the Soviets. What a background for a story of love and finding oneself!

 

Let me mention another book that I read this summer: Children of Dust by Ali Eteraz, a tale of growing up in Pakistan and the US and the internal religious struggle. This is the assigned summer reading book for the first years at my son's college. More on the book and author here.

[JennW in SoCal]

We're surrounded by comic books and graphic novels here. My dh is a comic book artist, mostly Batman and superhero stuff. My boys aren't huge comics fans, but love good art, love Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, and Bloom County. My oldest really liked Maus, the Pulitzer (I think) winning graphic novel about the Holocaust. My youngest enjoyed a series called Mouse Guard, which looks like a rip off of Redwall, but the artist was introduced to Redwall after he had drawn and written the first issue. Another cool series my youngest likes is called Flight -- it is a square bound book of several different stories, which is published annually.

 

I am currently reading 3 books:

 

Moby Dick, which I'm really enjoying thanks to an excellent audio book narrator, Anthony Heald. He makes those long, clause-choked sentences come to life. I'm 1/3 of the way through with hours yet to go (it is almost 24 hours worth of audio!)

 

Uncle Tungsten, by Oliver Sacks. It was on the summer reading list for a local high school, and is excellent. A memoir of a childhood surrounded by scientists and free reign with lots of dangerous chemicals!!

 

And more of Terry Pratchett's Discworld, this time Thud! (The exclamation point is part of the title....)

 

I read some Sherlock Holmes short stories on my new iPad -- and found I really love using it to read.

[eaglei]

I finished reading:

 

#45 - Knockout: Interviews With Doctors Who are Curing Cancer and How to Prevent Getting it in the First Place, by Suzanne Somers. As I wrote last week, this was enlightening and infuriating.

 

Am currently reading:

 

#46 - Run Baby Run, by Nicky Cruz with Jamie Buckingham. Since I re-read The Cross and the Switchblade earlier this year, I thought I would read this book, which I've not previously read. I'm still at the beginning and it is harsh reading.

[dangermom]

I read the Castle spin-off book Heat Wave. It was fun fluff.

 

I just now finished a book I never knew existed--it's on the Faerie Queene, written from lecture notes by C. S. Lewis. He died before he could turn it into a proper book, and this other fellow Fowler did it. I really enjoyed the book; FQ is one of those things that Lewis loved, and he makes you want to read and enjoy it, only if you've ever tried it's horribly difficult. So I went searching, and found a retelling of the stories that somebody wrote for children back in 1915. I'm going to order it so we can all enjoy the stories and maybe someday tackle the poem better equipped.

[Rosie_0801]

I read "Lady of the Butterflies" by Fiona Mountain. It could have been much better; so I'm not even bothering to link to it.

 

Rosie

Edited August 23, 2010 by Rosie_0801

[WiseOwlKnits]

Dd just finished book #2 in the City of Ember series.

 

The Passage sounds creepy! Be sure to post a review once you read it.

 

 

I will!

 

I hope she likes #3 better than I did. It's a prequel and I kept wanting to just get back to the main storyline. LOL! :lol:

[Negin]

Dh (a Belgian) grew up loving TinTin.

ds enjoys that kind of thing. (He's a huge fan of the "Get Fuzzy" comic series & is now starting to get into "Calvin & Hobbes".)

Stacia, we have almost all the Tintin books and Asterix ones also. Dh and the dc have loved both. Tintin was very popular in Iran when I was a child.

We also have all the Calvin and Hobbes. :)

 

I'm reading and LOVING The Girl Who Played with Fire. I don't want to put it down. Certain parts of it are making me quite anxious. The beginning is very interesting, since it takes place in Grenada. The author used to vacation here quite often.

 

Also re-reading and this time taking serious notes - The Anti Cancer Book - an absolutely fabulous overall health book. Couldn't recommend it more. Written by a doctor diagnosed with a brain tumor and how he healed. Full of hope and lots of practical info. No wacky, quacky stuff. Solid research and just great.

This is the story of a doctor who had brain cancer twice. At the age of 31, he diagnosed himself with a malignant brain tumor. I can't even begin to imagine. He's one of the founding members of Doctors Without Borders.

 

Edited August 24, 2010 by Negin in Grenada

[ladydusk]

List (Links are to my review):

Week 1: Touch Not the Cat - Mary Stewart

Week 2: Classical Education and the Homeschool - Douglas Wilson, Wesley Callihan, Doug Jones

Week 3: Parenting from the Heart - Marilyn Boyer

Week 4: Meet the Austins - Madeleine L'Engle

Week 6: The Moon by Night - L'Engle

Week 6: The Little Book of Christian Character and Morals - Dedrick

Week 7: How Lincoln Learned to Read - Daniel Wolff

Week 8: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Anne Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Week 10: The Young Unicorns - L'Engle

Week 12: Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics - Liping Ma

Week 12: The Arm of the Starfish - L'Engle

Week 15: Building Her House - Nancy Wilson

Week 16: Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit - Teri Maxwell

Week 17: A Ring of Endless Light - L'Engle

Week 20: Just So Stories - Kipling

Week 20: Wise Words - Peter Leithart

Week 24: Troubling a Star - L'Engle

Week 24: House Like a Lotus - L'Engle

Week 24: The Talisman Ring - Georgette Heyer

Week 24: The Grand Sophy - Heyer

Week 24: The Corinthian - Heyer

Week 24: Arabella - Heyer

Week 25: A Civil Contract - Heyer

Week 25: The Princess and the Goblin -George MacDonald

Week 25: Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters

Week 26: An Acceptable Time - L'Engle

Week 27: The Curse of the Pharaohs - Elizabeth Peters

Week 28-32: April Lady - Heyer; Friday's Child - Heyer; Frederica - Heyer; The Quiet Gentleman - Heyer; Venetia - Heyer; Five Little Peppers and How they Grew (the kids enjoyed this, DH and I found it very dull indeed)

Week 33 - Cousin Kate - Heyer

Week 33 - The Mummy Case - Peters

Week 34 - The Core - Leigh Bortins

[Robin M]

 

Link to week 35