Book a Week in 2011 - week forty five

[Robin M]

Good morning my dears! Today is the start of week 45 in our quest to read 52 books in 52 weeks. Welcome back to our regulars 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 in my signature.

 

52 Books Blog - Haunted Book shop mysteries. Cleo Coyle, who wrote the coffee house mysteries also has another series under the name Alice Kimberly which is about book store owner whose haunted by a dead private eye. Great cozy mystery, entertaining and good comic moments. I read the first one and thoroughly enjoyed it. Besides that, she has a fun website with all things coffee and bunch of recipes.

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 44

[Robin M]

I just read Nora Robert's latest "The Next Always." Wonderful romance with another set of interesting characters. Unfortunately have to wait until mid 2012 for the next installment. Currently reading C.J. Lyons medical mystery "Warning Signs" which is the 2nd book in her Angels of Mercy series. Not sure why I didn't start with the first book, but its good and not having any trouble following.

[-M-]

Book #103 was Joan Didion's Blue Nights. (Related M-mv entry here; a chapbook entry to follow soon.) This week, I'm reading Henry IV, Part II (Shakespeare), and I hope to finish (finally!) World War Z (Max Brooks).

[hsbaby]

I just finished Life As We Knew It. I didn't realize it was more of a teen fiction, but I enjoyed it. slow to start with, but picked up and ended up being a decent apocalyptic book:). Don't think I'll continue the series though.....

[Stacia]

I'm just cracking the cover on The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss

 

From Goodreads.com:

 

"Lev Nussimbaum was a Jew who transformed himself into a Muslim prince and became a bestselling author in Nazi Germany. Born in 1905 to a wealthy family in the oil-boom city of Baku, at the edge of the czarist empire, Lev escaped the Russian Revolution in a camel caravan. He found refuge in Germany, where, writing under the names Essad Bey and Kurban Said, his remarkable books about Islam, desert adventures, and global revolution became celebrated throughout fascist Europe. His enduring masterpiece, Ali and Nino - a story of love across ethnic and religious boundaries, published on the eve of the Holocaust - is still in print today." "But Lev's life grew wilder than his wildest stories. He married an international heiress who had no idea of his real identity - until she divorced him in a tabloid scandal. His closest friend in New York, George Sylvester Viereck, also a friend of Freud's and Einstein's, was arrested as the leading Nazi agent in the United States. Lev was invited to be Mussolini's official biographer - until the Fascists uncovered his true origins. Under house arrest in the Amalfi cliff town of Positano, Lev wrote his last book - scrawled in tiny print in half a dozen notebooks never before read by anyone - helped by a mysterious half-German salon hostess, an Algerian weapons smuggler, and the poet Ezra Pound." "Tom Reiss spent five years tracking down secret police records, love letters, diaries, and deathbed notebooks. Beginning with a yearlong investigation for The New Yorker magazine, he pursued Lev's story across ten countries and found himself caught up in encounters as dramatic and surreal - and sometimes as heartbreaking - as his subject's life." As he tracks down the pieces of Lev Nussimbaum's deliberately obscured life, Reiss discovers a series of shadowy worlds - of European pan-Islamists, nihilist assassins, anti-Nazi book smugglers, Baku oil barons, Jewish Orientalists - that have also been forgotten."

 

Books read as of July 2011:

32. The Reluctant Entertainer

33. A Curable Romantic

34. A Reliable Wife

35. Living the Simple Life

36. The Music of Chance

37. The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise

38. Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui

39. The Book of Jhereg

40. The Lost Symbol

41. Storm Front

42. The Clutter Cure

43. Simplicity Parenting

44. Madame Tussaud

45. The Map of Time

46. The Somnambulist

47. The Island of Lost Maps

48. The Adventurer's Handbook

49. Garden Spells

50. Dracula The Un-Dead

51. The Gold Bug

52. The Rule of Four

53. Ilustrado

54. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

55. Boneshaker

56. Judgment of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959

57. Slaughterhouse-Five

58. The Graveyard Book

59. World War Z

 

Stacia's Challenge/2011 Goodreads

[prairiegirl]

I finished 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' and have now started 'The Sherlockian' by Graham Moore (a fiction take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life--am enjoying it) and 'Different Learners' by Jane Healy.

[Negin]

Stacia, The Orientalist looks very interesting. :)

 

I'm on the very last chapter of Mindset. Dh is listening to it on audio books. I have a rather fixed mindset about many things and have much to learn :tongue_smilie:. Will be taking lots of notes once I finish reading it. Dh has a growth mindset about most things. Mind you, he's also taking notes. :D This book is fabulous. I highly recommend it to those who love Outliers. There's much more to this book than the chart below.

 

[Mom-ninja.]

I finished Jen Lancaster's book My Fair Lazy. I didn't like it as much as Bitter is the New Black.

 

I started Bill Bryson's Neither Here nor There and laughed so hard while running I had to stop for a moment.

[eaglei]

This week I finished:

 

#69 - Don't Worry, Make Money: Spiritual and Practical Ways to Create Abundance and More Fun in Your Life, by Richard Carlson, Ph.D. - Quick reading that reinforces what we already know but sometimes need reminded.

 

#70 - Violets for Mr. B., by Margaret Jensen - I thoroughly enjoy this Christian writer! Quick, easy, encouraging reading. Actually, she's more of a storyteller. This book revolves around her days as a nurse, when so much of what we take for granted today did not exist, like antibiotics. I've read three of her books and will be glad when I stumble upon another at some old used book store or thrift shop or yard sale...

 

Last night I began:

 

#71 - Papa's Wife, by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn - So far it is delightful and I expect to breeze through it!

 

I will definitely follow this book with the remaining two in the trilogy! I knew there was a sequel but was absolutely delighted to learn it's actually a trilogy. So up next will be:

 

#72 - Papa's Daughter, by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn

#73 - Mama's Way, by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn

[Guest]

Finished George W. Bush's Decision Points last night and I loved it.

 

I am trying to decide if I am going to read Affinity Bridge. Did anyone read that/have reviews? I want to break into that steampunk genre. . .

[Negin]

I started Bill Bryson's Neither Here nor There and laughed so hard while running I had to stop for a moment.

Added it to my wish list. Thank you. :D

[Mommyfaithe]

I am reading The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson. Meh. I wasn't totally wild about Dragon Tattoo...and less impressed with this one... But I will probably read the 3 rd one because I am weird like that.

 

I also read Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos. I laughed until my sides hurt. I wonder how much of this book was autobiographical. I just loved the boy....and his mom....and his dad....and his town...and the old lady he was friends with. I can't wait to see how much my 17 Yo ds loves this book.

 

Faithe

[Just Robyn]

Stacia - I agree with the pp who said The Orientalist looks interesting AND I have World War Z waiting for me on the hold shelf at the library. I have to spend some time browsing your goodreads shelf.

 

Finished this week:

 

35. The Adventures of Prickly Porky by Thomas Burgess. I read this to my youngest son. I thought it was cute, but it dragged. He hated it. We won't be reading more of those. Too bad I bought four of them. :glare:

 

36. I finished reading Ronia, the Robber's Daughter to my children. This is a book written by Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi Longstocking books. It was a really wonderful story of friendship, family, and coming of age. My kids and I all loved it and I recommend it if you're looking for a read-aloud.

 

37.The Ruins of Gorlan, the first book in the Ranger's Apprentice series, by John Flanagan. My oldest son is reading the Ranger's Apprentice books and asked me to read them with him. Though I was honored by the request and wouldn't pass it up for the world, I was not looking forward to the books themselves. However, I was surprised. I actually enjoyed this first book, and the ranger to whom the main character is an apprentice is swoon material.

 

38. The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs. Part memoir, part bathroom reader, the author of this book set out to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A - Z. He blesses us with the most interesting, funny, and occasionally beautiful annotated facts and quotes from the encyclopedia while chronicling his life and thoughts as he does it. My only criticism is that hearing about his life of privilege (as it would seem from my perspective) does get tiresome.

[Imprimis]

I've been slowing way down on my reading as I've been switching into holiday mode :)

I did, however, finish The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell since checking in last. An interesting mystery/thriller set at Princeton.

 

I've started Dickens' David Copperfield, but am moving through it at a snail's pace.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[luvnlattes]

Besides that, she has a fun website with all things coffee and bunch of recipes.

 

Coffee???!!! Did you say COFFEE???!!! I'll have to check that out. :D

 

 

I highly recommend it to those who love Outliers. There's much more to this book than the chart below.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed Outliers so this sounds like something I'd enjoy. Thanks, Negin!

 

 

 

As for me, I've made it about halfway through Stone's Fall by Iain Pears. I'm hoping I can finish it this week.

[dangermom]

I read Storming the Tulips, a collective memoir of WWII in Amsterdam written by the students at the 1st Montessori School. I also read a collection of bookplates called Ex Libris, though no one cares about that. :)

 

Oh, and I finished a couple of things for my Victorian lit--I read some short stories by Pushkin and Lady Audley's Secret.

[Storm Bay]

This week I'm reading Jin-Ling's Two Left Feet http://www.amazon.com/Jin-Lings-Left-Feet-Helen-Chen/dp/1936107090/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320698493&sr=8-1 This is the first published novel from a now defunct on-line writer's group I used to be in (we're mentioned in the acknowledgements). In fact, I remember making comments and suggestions on some of the early drafts of the first few chapters before I left the group, which folded about a year or so later.

[ladydusk]

I finished The Return of the King last night. I loved the whole series, which I read before but just didn't really *get* like I did this time (and I'm sure there is more to "get").

 

My 2011 Reviews:

 

1. Her Daughter's Dream - Francine Rivers

2. Island of the World - Michael O'Brien (AMAZING!)

3. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen

4. Cinderella Ate My Daughter - Peggy Orenstein

5. Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer

6. Keeping a Nature Journal - Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E Roth.

7. Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (Audio Book) - Anthony Esolen

8. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym

9. The Abyssinian - Jean-Christophe Rufin

10. In the Company of Others - Jan Karon

11. One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp

12. Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer

13. Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer

14. The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer

15. The Organized Heart - Staci Eastin

16. Your Home: A Place of Grace - Susan Hunt

17. Christian Encounters: Jane Austen - Peter Leithart

18. Bambi: A Life in the Woods - Victor Salten

19. Aunt Jane's Hero - Elizabeth Prentiss

20. The Magician's Nephew (Audio Book) - C.S. Lewis

21. The Horse and His Boy (Audio Book) - C.S. Lewis

22. Beauty for Truth's Sake - Stratford Caldecott

23. A Mother's Rule of Life - Holly Pierlot

24. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

25. Persuasion - Jane Austen

26. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

27. Real Love for Real Life - Andi Ashworth

28. Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies - Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

29. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction - Alan Jacobs

30. The Help - Kathryn Stockett

31. The Waiting Sands - Susan Howatch

32. Prince Caspian (Audio Book) - C.S. Lewis

33. Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (review forthcoming)

34. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen

35. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

36. The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien

37. The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien

[Violet Crown]

Finished

 

24. Graham Greene, The Honorary Consul.

 

I don't know why I keep reading Greene's later novels, hoping they'll be good, when I know they won't. This one is especially awful; Greene was still trying to re-write The Power and the Glory, but with the loss of his faith he became moralizing and didactic, and ruined what could have been a perfectly good book.

 

Vocabulary I had to look up: yashmak, jalousie, lie doggo

 

Interestingly, the book I've now taken up - Tolstoy's Master and Man and Other Stories - was also from the writer's later years, and suffers in the first of its three stories ("Father Sergius") from the same moralizing, didactic writing, with the difference that Tolstoy's faith had grown stronger, not weaker. Of course, Tolstoy on a bad day is a hundred times better than anything that's going to be on the New York Times Bestseller list all year, and the second and third stories in the collection are much better, so this is going to be a five-star book, in contrast to the two stars I'll have to give Greene.

 

23. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War; Rex Warner, tr.

22. Gerald Hanley, Drinkers of Darkness

21. Henry James, What Maisie Knew.

20. Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native.

19. Henry James, The Spoils of Poynton.

18. Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.

17. Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm.

16. Terence, Phormio & Other Plays. Betty Radice, Tr.

15. Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here.

14. Goethe, Faust: Part One. Philip Wayne, Tr.

13. Robert Musil, Young Torless. Eithne Wilkins & Ernst Kaiser, Tr.

12. Chris Wright, Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math: Book 1

11. John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor

10. Fernando de Rojas, The Spanish Bawd (La Celestina); J. M. Cohen, Tr.

9. Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil; various tr.

8. Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House and Other Plays (The League of Youth, A Doll's House, The Lady From the Sea); Peter Watts, Tr.

7. Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind*

6. Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

5. Graham Greene, A Burnt-Out Case

4. Aeschylus, The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides); Robert Fagles, Tr.

3. Camara Laye, The Radiance of the King

2. St. Augustine, Sermons for Christmas and Epiphany

1. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

0. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars*

[Guest]

Finished George W. Bush's Decision Points last night and I loved it.

 

I am trying to decide if I am going to read Affinity Bridge. Did anyone read that/have reviews? I want to break into that steampunk genre. . .

 

Okay, read The Affinity Bridge. Last night I started Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken. You probably have all read it already - I'm behind the times - but it is uh-mazing so far! I think I have 100 pages left. What a story!

[Medieval Mom]

I'm taking a break from Tolkien for some light reading. I just re-read Anne's House of Dreams (#5 in the Anne of Green Gables series). I know I read this book a LONG time ago, but I can't imagine that I got much out of it then. This is a book that truly speaks to someone who's lived life a bit-- at least through their early marriage, first baby, moving to a new town years. I laughed, I cried, I dreamed, I smiled. Ahh... It's well worth re-reading these "childhood" classics. (How many are truly better once we're older!)

[Mom-ninja.]

Finished The Dyslexic Advantage last night. I really liked it.

[laughing lioness]

I read Zipporah, Wife of Moses by Halter this week. I did not agree with several things- including his conclusion.

[Storm Bay]

Finished The Dyslexic Advantage last night. I really liked it.

Good, because I have it out of the library, and as soon as I'm done my fiction diversion plan to get to it (and after I read the one for piano teachers that I can only read a bit at a time).

[ladydusk]

I finished another Heyer; some brain candy post-Tolkien. I understand that Lady of Quality was her last book, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

My 2011 Reviews:

 

1. Her Daughter's Dream - Francine Rivers

2. Island of the World - Michael O'Brien (AMAZING!)

3. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress - Rhoda Janzen

4. Cinderella Ate My Daughter - Peggy Orenstein

5. Devil's Cub - Georgette Heyer

6. Keeping a Nature Journal - Clare Walker Leslie and Charles E Roth.

7. Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization (Audio Book) - Anthony Esolen

8. Excellent Women - Barbara Pym

9. The Abyssinian - Jean-Christophe Rufin

10. In the Company of Others - Jan Karon

11. One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp

12. Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer

13. Bath Tangle - Georgette Heyer

14. The Convenient Marriage - Georgette Heyer

15. The Organized Heart - Staci Eastin

16. Your Home: A Place of Grace - Susan Hunt

17. Christian Encounters: Jane Austen - Peter Leithart

18. Bambi: A Life in the Woods - Victor Salten

19. Aunt Jane's Hero - Elizabeth Prentiss

20. The Magician's Nephew (Audio Book) - C.S. Lewis

21. The Horse and His Boy (Audio Book) - C.S. Lewis

22. Beauty for Truth's Sake - Stratford Caldecott

23. A Mother's Rule of Life - Holly Pierlot

24. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

25. Persuasion - Jane Austen

26. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

27. Real Love for Real Life - Andi Ashworth

28. Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies - Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

29. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction - Alan Jacobs

30. The Help - Kathryn Stockett

31. The Waiting Sands - Susan Howatch

32. Prince Caspian (Audio Book) - C.S. Lewis

33. Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien (review forthcoming)

34. Garden Spells - Sarah Addison Allen

35. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame

36. The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien

37. The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien

38. Lady of Quality - Georgette Heyer

[Medieval Mom]

I finished The Return of the King last night. I loved the whole series, which I read before but just didn't really *get* like I did this time (and I'm sure there is more to "get").

 

 

Yep! I'm not sure how many times I've read LOTR, but each time I get more out of it. :) I suppose that's true of all classics. (And I definitely put LOTR in the English classics list!)

[Mom-ninja.]

Good, because I have it out of the library, and as soon as I'm done my fiction diversion plan to get to it (and after I read the one for piano teachers that I can only read a bit at a time).

 

It was really eye opening for me. Also there's thread about the book in the Special Needs forum.

[Angel]

I finished Macbeth this morning. I've got two other books going but am so behind around the house that I doubt I will finish them this week.

 

Book #103 was Joan Didion's Blue Nights. (Related M-mv entry here; a chapbook entry to follow soon.) This week, I'm reading Henry IV, Part II (Shakespeare), and I hope to finish (finally!) World War Z (Max Brooks).

 

M-mv I just wanted to say thanks for your website. I used it to help me figure out how to plan my dd's Shakespeare Lit study group. We have finished Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth and have 6 more plays to go. The kids are surprised by how much they are enjoying it.

[Storm Bay]

It was really eye opening for me. Also there's thread about the book in the Special Needs forum.

Thanks. I saw that thread, and it's why I orderd the book. I may well go read it once I've read it.

[6packofun]

This week I'm reading Jin-Ling's Two Left Feet http://www.amazon.com/Jin-Lings-Left-Feet-Helen-Chen/dp/1936107090/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320698493&sr=8-1

 

This looks good! Reminds me, in a way, of Girl in Translation. So I will probably enjoy it!

Edited November 11, 2011 by 6packofun
typo

[NanceXToo]

36. I finished reading Ronia, the Robber's Daughter to my children. This is a book written by Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi Longstocking books. It was a really wonderful story of friendship, family, and coming of age. My kids and I all loved it and I recommend it if you're looking for a read-aloud.

 

Hm, I happen to have this one sitting on one of my bookcases. Maybe we'll read it this coming week, since I am doing this challenge with my 11 y/o daughter!

[prairiegirl]

I finished "The Sherlockian" by Graham Moore this week. I loved this book! It is a fictionalized account of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life and it is intermingled with a modern day mystery.

 

I also read "The Soldier's Wife" by Margaret Leroy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is set in WWII during the German occupation of the island of Guernsey. I thought this book was much better than The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society (or whatever the title is, I always forget.)

 

I am now reading Book #52--Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

[Sparkle]

I finished The Presidents' Cookbook by Poppy Cannon. I also read Murder in Burnt Orange by Jeanne Dams (her latest in the Hilda Johansson series), Remembered Death by Agatha Christie, and The Christmas Cookie Killer by Livia J. Washburn. Currently reading The Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke. Lots of light, fluffy reading lately with lots of recipes! I'm trying to get in the holiday mood :)

[Rosie_0801]

Ah! I've been missing this thread for the last few weeks. I don't know how it's slipped past me!

 

Since the last time I posted the most noteworthy reads have been 'Brida' by Paulo Coehlo (Oh how I love his books!) a book on raising musical kids and Susan Striker's book about teaching art. I think she takes some of her preferences a little too far, you know I don't feel like I'm endangering my child's development by giving her colouring books sometimes! However, looking past those annoying bits, it has been a valuable read.

 

:)

Rosie

[Robin M]

 

Link to week 46 - please continue conversation in new thread

[Narrow Gate Academy]

..

Edited November 14, 2011 by Narrow Gate Academy
nm