Book a Week in 2010 - Week 35

[Robin M]

Today is the start of book week 35 and the quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Have you started Book # 35 yet? Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 books blog and ready for you to link to your reviews.

 

52 Books blog: International Thriller Writers have published some great anthologies to check out. What type of thriller do you prefer to read: psychological, medical, political, crime, supernatural, or mystery.

 

Watcha reading this week?

[Robin M]

Trying to decide what going to read next. So many books on my nightstand. Of course, I just picked up Running Scared by Lisa Jackson on thursday. I want to read it now, versus later.

[WiseOwlKnits]

I finished Veracity by Laura Bynum this week. It was awesome and I HIGHLY recommend it!! I can't wait till her next book comes out.

 

Right now I'm reading Mockingjay by Susanne Collins. After that will be The Girl Who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson because it finally came in at the library.

[Stacia]

I had an unexpectedly crazy week last week, so I got very little reading done. I'm still working on:

 

 

My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk.

 

 

What type of thriller do you prefer to read: psychological, medical, political, crime, supernatural, or mystery.

 

I clicked on the link & it certainly mentioned a diverse array of books considered 'thrillers' (including "Heart of Darkness" and "Dracula", both books which I think are great but that I wouldn't have thought of as 'thrillers' necessarily). I'm curious as to what all is included under the term 'thriller'? I do enjoy thrillers, mostly ones that would probably fall under psychological, crime, and/or mystery categories.

 

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

[Rosie_0801]

I read two chick lit books I prefer not to fully confess to, and The Book: The Life Story of a Technology. It's part of a series and might be valuable for those trying to get history into their history resistant teenagers.

 

:)

Rosie

[eaglei]

I finished:

 

#46 - Run Baby Run, by Nicky Cruz with Jamie Buckingham. Since I re-read The Cross and the Switchblade earlier this year, I decided to read this related biography. The first half of the book was especially rough reading, but the overall message in the second half made it worth it.

 

I am currently reading:

 

#47 - Dance of a Fallen Monk: A Journey to Spiritual Enlightenment, by George Fowler. This looked intriguing and I am mostly *enjoying* it, but sometimes his thoughts/beliefs are a trifle troubling and sometimes the book is a little too introspective for my tastes. Nonetheless, I will finish it as it does have its' compelling components.

[Negin]

I finished and loved The Girl Who Played with Fire. Can't wait till the last one arrives in the mail. :)

 

Am about to start Lottery - the premise looks good and looks like it would make a nice movie.

 

[LNC]

I haven't been keeping track of my reading, definately at least a book a week. I'm going to keep a record next year though!

 

I'm reading Titan by Ron Chernow, a bio of John D. Rockefeller Sr. This is the most fascinating book I've read in ages. I never knew the history of the oil industry or the industrial expansion in US after Civil War. Ron Chernow can write a bio like no one else imo. I've read Alexander Hamilton, but I plan on reading everything he's written now. He just covers the time period so thoroughly you feel immersed in it. He has a bio of George Washington coming out this year I can't wait to read.

[Ginevra]

I have not yet finished, but am enjoying, The Glamour of Grammar. All writers should read this book.

 

Expect my pace to slow from here to December.

[Stacia]

I finished My Name is Red last night. I'm still thinking about it. The basic premise of the book is a murder mystery set in the middle ages in Istanbul. The sultan has commissioned a book (an illustrated manuscript) & two of the artists working on the book are murdered. The question becomes not only who murdered them, but also if they were murdered because some of the illustrations in the secretive book may be figurative illustrations ('Western' style; possibly controversial because a figurative style may or may not go against the Koran's teachings). The author has a lot to say about the nature of art, philosophy, and religion -- and how those can mesh or clash, esp. in relation to religious beliefs (non-representational Islamic art & artistic styles of the East vs. figurative Christian art & 'realistic' art styles of the West). Even though it's set in the middle ages, the artistic & religious debates seem very relevant for today's world & religious/political upheaval.

 

I loved the kaleidoscopic effect of each chapter being told by various narrators (some repeat, some don't). Each chapter title tells you who is speaking (various artists, other characters, sometimes objects/things such as a gold coin, a tree, or the color red). Though this is not a funny book, per se, there were some witty observations, esp. in the chapters by things/objects. The gold coin had some humorous observations of people & their love of money.

 

Because I don't have enough knowledge & lack the cultural background on which this book is based, I feel like there is probably a good bit that I may have missed or not understood the importance of. It was neither quick nor easy to read, imo. I'm not sure it would be a book that would appeal to everyone, but I'm glad I read it because it taught me some new things & has left me with some interesting ideas to ponder.

 

I guess I'm on a 'colorful' book title streak because I have started two other books with colors in their titles. :D

 

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Winner of the 2008 Man Booker Prize)

 

 

"In this darkly comic début novel set in India, Balram, a chauffeur, murders his employer, justifying his crime as the act of a "social entrepreneur." In a series of letters to the Premier of China, in anticipation of the leader’s upcoming visit to Balram’s homeland, the chauffeur recounts his transformation from an honest, hardworking boy growing up in "the Darkness"—those areas of rural India where education and electricity are equally scarce, and where villagers banter about local elections "like eunuchs discussing the Kama Sutra"—to a determined killer. He places the blame for his rage squarely on the avarice of the Indian élite, among whom bribes are commonplace, and who perpetuate a system in which many are sacrificed to the whims of a few. Adiga’s message isn’t subtle or novel, but Balram’s appealingly sardonic voice and acute observations of the social order are both winning and unsettling."

The Black Nile: One Man's Amazing Journey Through Peace and War on the World's Longest River by Dan Morrison

 

 

"A spectacular modern-day adventure along the Nile River from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea

 

 

With news of tenuous peace in Sudan, foreign correspondent Dan Morrison bought a plank-board boat, summoned a childhood friend who'd never been off American soil and set out from Uganda, paddling the White Nile on a quest to reach Cairo-a trip that tyranny and war had made impossible for decades.

 

Morrison's chronicle is a mashup of travel narrative and reportage, packed with flights into the frightful and the absurd. Through river mud that engulfs him and burning marshlands that darken the sky, he tracks the snarl of commonalities and conflicts that bleed across the Nile valley, bringing to life the waters that connect the hardscrabble fishing villages of Lake Victoria to the floating Cairo nightclubs where headscarved mothers are entertained by gyrating male dancers. In between are places and lives invisible to cable news and opinion blogs: a hidden oil war that has erased entire towns, secret dams that will flood still more and contested borderlands where acts of compassion and ingenuity defy appalling hardship and waste of life. As Morrison dodges every imaginable hazard, from militia gunfire to squalls of sand, his mishaps unfold in strange harmony with the breathtaking range of individuals he meets along the way. Relaying the voices of Sudanese freedom fighters and escaped Ugandan sex slaves, desert tribesmen and Egyptian tomb raiders, The Black Nile culminates in a visceral understanding of one of the world's most elusive hotspots, where millions strive to claw their way from war and poverty to something better-if only they could agree what that something is, whom to share it with, and how to get there.

 

With the propulsive force of a thriller, The Black Nile is rife with humor, humanity and fervid insight-an unparalleled portrait of a complex territory in profound transition."

 

[laughing lioness]

Am about 1/2 way done with "Think Smart: A Neuroscientists Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance" by Richard Restak and started "Pagen Christianity" by Viola and Barna.

 

Both intersesting and thought provoking.

Read "Shalom in the Home" last week by Rabbi Boteach. Very good, easy read, challenging. Loved it from a systems, solutions oriented pov.

[Storm Bay]

While on holidays I read The Help, The Forgotten Garden and Mockingjay. That's what I remember from our time in Osoyoos (don't know where that is ;?). I may have read a novel at my parents' house before we all went to Osoyoos, but don't remember anymore. I probably did. I can't remember what I've read since I posted last, either. It's been a busy summer. Good thing I was ahead on my reading when it started.

[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

Week 35 - A Sweet Flame: Piety in the Letters of Jonathan Edwards - Michael Haykin

[Stacia]

 

I finished The White Tiger last night. It was pretty good, but might not be to everyone’s liking. I liked it quite well overall. It has some very dark humor (which I found funny) & is a scathing look at political & social life in India. The story moves along at a good clip & has lots of fascinating (to me) social observations. The story is told as a series of letters (or dictations) to the Premier of China (who is coming to India for a visit) from a guy who is a businessman (who has managed to rise above his caste/being a servant & is now an entrepreneur). The narrator's purpose is to tell the Premier the ‘truth’ about India.

 

I'm still reading The Black Nile: One Man's Amazing Journey through Peace and War on the World's Longest River.

 

I also started The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I’m only a couple of chapters into it & I’m already totally enchanted w/ the main character, Flavia de Luce, an 11yo chemistry prodigy. I hope the rest of the book stays as good as the first couple of chapters because I love it so far.

[Robin M]

 

Link to week 36