Book a Week in 2011 - week Forty Six

[Robin M]

Good morning my dears! Today is the start of week 46 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 - a poetical moment: found an awesome poem by James Foley thanks to A Thomas Jefferson Education. It was in one of their weekly emails.

 

There are only 6 weeks left in the year, can you believe it. This year has flown by. In preparation for next year, there are all kinds of reading challenges being announced. Check out Novel Challenges and see if any of them spark for ideas for books to read.

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 45

[Robin M]

I picked up a book by Meg Gardner The Memory Collector which was fabulous despite her writing style. Came across some weird sentences that totally threw me out of the story. Tell me what you think this means:

 

"She was so effervescent that Jo wondered what would happen if she walked past an open drawer of cutlery on a particularly dynamic day."

 

I was scratching me head over this one for a while. But the story was interesting. One of the characters is exposed to a virus which makes him forget the last five minutes. He's trying to figure out the mystery, but doesn't know who to trust, whose good or bad. He's constantly writing notes to himself, then has to decipher what they mean in order to go on.

[rhrice3]

Well, I have read and reread that sentence, and I join you in "scratching me head over it". I find it bizarre.

 

I finished "BossyPants" by Tina Fey this last week. I was waiting for some requests from the library to come through, and it caught my eye. Someone had commented on it earlier in the challenge, and I do like her comedy. It was comical, and I read large portions of it to my husband aloud while driving to visit our son at college. It was a fun way to pass the long drive.

 

The week before last I read "Romancing Miss Bronte" by Juliet Gael. It was enjoyable, and if you are a fan of Bronte, Austen, etc you will enjoy it.

 

I was thrilled to receive one of my request earlier this week - the new Flavia de Luce book by Alan C. Bradley "I am Half Sick of Shadows". It will be a fun, fast read since I am a fan of Flavia, and it so far is delightful.

 

My daughter and I are, also, reading "The Cat of Bubastes" by G.A. Henty online. I had bought and sold this book years ago, and I was so excited to find it on http://www.openlibrary.org so I could enjoy it with her during our study of Egypt. It is an interesting website that has books available to read online.

 

Have a great week and thanks again to all you ladies that recommend great books.

ReneeR

[Negin]

Reading Someone Knows My Name. Liking it quite a bit, but for some reason, having a hard time giving it my 100% attention. Very Roots-ish. I loved Roots when I read it about 15 years ago.

 

[Stacia]

Tell me what you think this means:

 

"She was so effervescent that Jo wondered what would happen if she walked past an open drawer of cutlery on a particularly dynamic day."

It makes me think of flying knives & cutlery, popping up into the air, flying around (not necessarily in a dangerous way, more in a magical, surprising way). I guess I'm thinking extreme soda carbonation w/ silverware instead of bubbles. :D

 

Our week was super-busy, so I barely managed any reading time. (I think that may be true for the remainder of 2012....) I'm still at the starting point of The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life by Tom Reiss

 

From the Chicago Tribune review:

 

The Story of a Writer Who Rewrote His Own Identity

 

"The Orientalist" is the biography of a fin de siecle rich kid named Lev Nussimbaum and of a haughty Azerbaijani emigre called Essad Bey and of Muslim writer Kurban Said, whose own not-quite-classic book "Ali and Nino" made waves in Nazi Europe--and it turns out that all these people were the same guy: an identity-swapping, Jewish Orientalist whose veneration of the East was his only solace from the cosmic inhumanity of wartime Europe.

 

American writer Tom Reiss has made a brainy, nimble, remarkable book of all this. But for all the amazing rises and falls of Nussimbaum/Bey/Said's expressly 20th Century life--and "The Orientalist" follows this wanderer in the valley of the shadow of death from Azerbaijan to Austria, from Istanbul to Positano, Italy--what boosts this account above a mere true-mystery yarn is Reiss' dead-on cultural analysis, his record of the failed ideas that almost destroyed the world. "The Orientalist" entertains while it raises the ghost of a time long forgotten."

 

Read the remainder of the review here.

Here's a fascinating, short video about Lev, told by the author.

 

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

Edited September 12, 2014 by Stacia

[eaglei]

This week I finished the first in the trilogy by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn:

 

#71 - Papa's Wife

 

I am currently reading volume 2:

 

#72 - Papa's Daughter

 

I will follow with the conclusion:

 

#73 - Mama's Way

 

After this, not sure what I will read, but probably something from my ever-growing stack . . .

[Rosie_0801]

I'm part way through Periodic Tales. It's a fun read!

 

Rosie

[Just Robyn]

I'm part way through Periodic Tales. It's a fun read!

 

Rosie

 

I stuck that on my amazon wishlist, but jeez it's expensive! I hope they have that at the library here.

 

Finished this week:

 

39. The Burning Bridge, book 2 in the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan.

 

40. Ghost World by Daniel Clowes. I loved this movie and have been wanting to read the graphic novel for some time now. It was good. More events were added to the movie and some things were changed, but it was very similar.

 

41. The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson. I asked my husband to pick something for me to read that he has read and I haven't. This is what he chose and I really enjoyed it. After giving my husband my take on it he said, "Like an older Holden Caulfield." I guess that's pretty much how I feel, and I LOVED Catcher in the Rye.

 

42. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard. I believe this book was quoted and/or recommended in The Writer's Jungle so I picked it up when I saw it at Half Price Books. I enjoyed the analogies and the writing style, but I think I would have enjoyed this more if either:

A. It had some practical information

or

B. I knew and enjoyed Annie Dillard as a writer before reading this book. This is the only book I have read by her. If this were a book about the writing life of Vonnegut I would have enjoyed it more because I already appreciate him as a writer, but I really have no idea who Annie Dillard is.

 

43. Vampire Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I saw this as I was browsing the library website and I thought, "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a bunch of vampire stories too? Awesome!" Well, there are no vampires in this entire book. There are 10 stories. In the 8th story someone is accused of being a vampire. The last story has a reported vampire, but it it is actually by a different author. The nine stories by Doyle were enjoyable and spooky and had supernatural elements, but no vampires. This would have been more appropriately titled Spooky Stories and the last story could have been omitted.

 

44. The Lemonade War by Jaqueline Davies. I read this book to my children for the youth reading group at Barnes and Noble. My children enjoyed it and I would say it was okay. I didn't like all the name brands throughout the story or the phrases like, "Oh, snap!" It gave a definition of a sales/business related term at the beginning of each chapter; that was cute.

[dangermom]

I read The Mockingbirds, a YA book, and Through the Language Glass, which was fascinating.

 

I've also been signing up for 2012 reading challenges! yay! Is anyone else doing any besides our usual 52 books? I've gotten too greedy and am doing medieval literature, a classics one, and (of all things) "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Also also! Announcing my very own challenge, in the spirit of classical education: The Greek Classics Challenge 2012! Come join me and read a little Sophocles. And, check out my lovely owl (thanks to my husband and the Louvre):

 

[Rosie_0801]

I stuck that on my amazon wishlist, but jeez it's expensive! I hope they have that at the library here.

 

Uh, it's good but if your library doesn't have it, do without! It's not worth that much money. :001_huh:

 

Rosie

[nd293]

I've had two crazy-busy weeks, and the first week I didn't read anything, or at least, nothing I can report - I 'hid' in a book every spare moment I could, but it was the 're-reading bits and pieces' type of reading. Comforting, but no good for catching up on the Book-a-Week Challenge!

 

Last week, for No. 42 I read I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg. It was just right to get me back into the mood for reading - funny and gentle with likeable characters. I'll keep the author in mind for weeks when I'm not motivated to read.

 

On Friday I started Day after Night by Anita Diamant. I enjoyed The Red Tent, but found this one more compelling. I didn't want to stop reading until I found out what happened to each of the characters. The story, set in Israel at the end of WWII, follows a group of Jewish women being held in a British internment camp for illegal immigrants. My only complaint is that I found it difficult to keep track of all the minor characters, as it was never clear whether they were going to be important to the central story or not.

 

Next weekend a friend and I are going away for a 'homeschool planning weekend', and I really want to get through Leigh Bortins' The Core before then. It's interesting, but not exactly a page-turner. Apart from that I have a 'heavy' fiction book, and another I borrowed from a friend that I don't want to read, but feel obliged to, as I didn't like the last one she lent me. Might try to hunt down another Flavia book, to increase the enjoyment factor in this week's reading...

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[Lizzie in Ma]

Busy making Christmas presents, it's a real problem for reading time. :)

Reading the 3rd Sandman Slim, Aloha from Hell and the new Neal Stephenson, Reamde is on deck. Maybe.

[prairiegirl]

Finished "The Soldier's Wife" by Margaret Leroy--loved this book--and have now started the latest from Joy Fielding (can't remember the title.) After reading her last book, I told myself that I wouldn't read any more by her but, well.... it was sitting there on the library shelf and I caved. I hope that this is better than the last one I read. Oh, and this one is my 52nd book for the year. :D

[ladydusk]

I'm reading North and South by Gaskell and finding it drearier than I had expected, probably because I just finished a Heyer (light and airy) and read a bunch of Austen semi-recently. I like it, but I'm finding it heavy.

[Onceuponatime]

I just finished reading Siddharta by Herman Hesse.

 

I don't have a book going right now but the next one will probably be Outliers.

[K in MI]

Here are books that I have finished since I last posted (many weeks ago!):

 

44. The Hobbit (Tolkien)

43. The Lightning Thief (Riordan)

42. Michael Vey (Evans)

41. The Snow Angel (Beck)

 

 

As you can see, I am behind. (I can do it! I can do it! :) )

Currently we are reading aloud The Inheritance (Paolini). I am reading Readicide (Gallagher), Nursing in the Storm (Danna), and Crimes Against Liberty (Limbaugh), all of which I started months ago and am finally getting back to.

[dangermom]

I would love to join in some of the 2012 reading challenges, but I don't know exactly how. Do you have to have a blog? I just don't get the whole "Mr. Linky" thing. I guess I'm showing my age :D

 

Generally there's an option if you don't have a blog; you just comment on the posts or something. The Mr. Linky thing is for if you DO have a blog--you write your post and submit the URL, and Mr. Linky produces a link for everyone else to use.

 

I wound up just starting a blog for reading because I wanted to join the challenges. :)

[eaglei]

Last week I finished #50 The Endurance by Caroline Alexander about Sir Earnest Shackleton's failed voyage to the South Pole. It's a great non-fiction adventure / survival story, and Caroline Alexander is a wonderful writer. The book is published in conjunction with the Smithsonian, has tons of pictures taken by the expedition photographer, and is really a pretty quick read at 200 or so pages. I love a good, bleak setting for atmosphere when the weather starts to turn cold :)

 

We read this years ago for family reading. You are right - it's a great adventure, survival story - even more compelling since it is nonfiction.:001_smile:

[Rosie_0801]

I just finished listening to Northanger Abbey last night, which means I've completed my personal challenge of listening to all Librivox's Jane Austen offerings this year. :) I don't even like Emma, but listening to her read aloud almost made her enjoyable.

 

Rosie

[Paisley Hedgehog]

. 

 

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I'm well behind for the year, but did add 3 books to my done list this week:

 

#23 Five Children and It by Nesbit

#22 The Nine Tailors by Sayers

#21 On the Incarnation of Our Lord by Athanasius

 

This week I'm working on The Dragon and the Raven by Henty, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede, The Book of Dragons by Nesbit, and The Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien. Hopefully, I'll finish the latter two and maybe slip in something entirely unrelated to school for fun.

[Angel]

I just finished listening to Northanger Abbey last night, which means I've completed my personal challenge of listening to all Librivox's Jane Austen offerings this year. :) I don't even like Emma, but listening to her read aloud almost made her enjoyable.

 

Rosie

 

:hurray: We read Jane Austen's six main novels last school year. Curious if you don't like the character Emma or the novel? I found that Emma certainly wasn't my favorite Jane Austen character, but the novel itself was entertaining and one of my favorites.

[Rosie_0801]

:hurray: We read Jane Austen's six main novels last school year. Curious if you don't like the character Emma or the novel? I found that Emma certainly wasn't my favorite Jane Austen character, but the novel itself was entertaining and one of my favorites.

 

I don't like the character, though I am sure I would like her after a few years of marriage when she's grown up a bit. Her meddling makes me uncomfortable. I love Mr Knightley though. :D He's my favourite Austen hero, though I wonder at his taste in women...

 

:)

Rosie

[Robin M]

I would love to join in some of the 2012 reading challenges, but I don't know exactly how. Do you have to have a blog? I just don't get the whole "Mr. Linky" thing. I guess I'm showing my age :D

 

 

You don't have to have a blog to join the challenges. Most will say you can let them know what you are reading in the comment sections of the posts. That way you can just avoid "Mr Linky" though he is rather friendly once you get used to him. *grin*

[Robin M]

I've also been signing up for 2012 reading challenges! yay! Is anyone else doing any besides our usual 52 books? I've gotten too greedy and am doing medieval literature, a classics one, and (of all things) "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Also also! Announcing my very own challenge, in the spirit of classical education: The Greek Classics Challenge 2012! Come join me and read a little Sophocles. And, check out my lovely owl (thanks to my husband and the Louvre):

 

 

Very cool widget. I'll probably do the What's in the Name, New Authors, and maybe the A to Z challenge again, besides 52 books. I'm going to try and not go overboard like I've done in the past. The eyes are bigger than the stomach syndrome. I just can't keep up like I used to.

[Angel]

I don't like the character, though I am sure I would like her after a few years of marriage when she's grown up a bit. Her meddling makes me uncomfortable. I love Mr Knightley though. :D He's my favourite Austen hero, though I wonder at his taste in women...

 

:)

Rosie

 

:lol: I had the girls that did the Jane Austen study last year with my dd keep a blog and it is so funny to see their opinions. One of their last projects (which not everybody has posted :glare:) was to list in order their favorite books and characters. It was ... enlightening. They are all so very different. One of the girls is a huge Mr. Knightley fan and we bought her a t-shirt that says "I am waiting for my Knightley is shining armor." I have a hard time picking my favorite!

[nd293]

I've also been signing up for 2012 reading challenges! yay! Is anyone else doing any besides our usual 52 books?

 

Where did you find 2012 reading challenges? Is there a specific place you went to find what's available? I've managed the basic 52 Books challenge this year (well, I'm still behind, but not worried) and definitely want to add a couple of other challenges this year.

[Storm Bay]

I read The Dog Who Came in From the Cold http://www.amazon.com/Dog-Who-Came-Cold-Corduroy/dp/0307379736/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321475376&sr=8-1 for a light, humourous break. That's a sequel. I borrowed it from the library. It's also out in paperback.

This week I finished the first in the trilogy by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn:

 

.

 

I've never heard of this author. How good are these? What genre, if any?

[dangermom]

Where did you find 2012 reading challenges? Is there a specific place you went to find what's available? I've managed the basic 52 Books challenge this year (well, I'm still behind, but not worried) and definitely want to add a couple of other challenges this year.

 

Go to the Novel Challenge blog, which is a clearinghouse for challenges! Sorry, I meant to put that in before. :001_smile:

 

I joined Back to the Classics, League of Extraordinary Gentlement, Mount TBR, and 150+. Because I am crazy.

[Mom-ninja.]

I'm part way through Periodic Tales. It's a fun read!

 

Rosie

 

My library has this so I added it to my list.

 

 

I love Mr Knightley though. :D

 

I swoon at the thought of Mr. Knightley.

 

 

I am finishing 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child on my Nook. It's encouraged me to keep on truckin.

 

I put The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on my MP3 but now I'm not in the mood for it. I listened to one story and had it figured out mid way.

Edited November 17, 2011 by Kleine Hexe

[eaglei]

Posted by Karin:

Quote:

Originally Posted by eaglei

This week I finished the first in the trilogy by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn:

I've never heard of this author. How good are these? What genre, if any?

 

Karin,

Sorry I missed your post yesterday!

 

I first heard about Papa's Wife a few years ago and am just now reading the trilogy!

 

This is mainly gentle, heartwarming writing about a Christian family and their life together, beginning in Lapland, then in America when the father, a preacher, accepts a call to America (which fulfills his wife's dream of raising their eight children in America where they can be *properly* educated).

 

From the book jacket: "The delightfully fresh and unaffected story of the Franzons' life together over a long period of golden years, a life lit by love and limitless trust in God."

 

The life, the friends, the inevitable troubles (both familial and in learning the life and the language of a new country) - the ways of life - told charmingly, sometimes humorously. These books were written in the 1950's and apparently are loosely based on the author's parents and her life.

 

From the back jacket: "Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn was born in a small village in Swedish Lapland. Like the Franzon family, there were four sisters and four brothers and their father was the pastor of a Baptist Church. She came with her family to America in 1924 when her father received a call from a Swedish church in Springfield, Massachusetts."

 

I finished Papa's Daughter yesterday; it begins briefly back at the beginning, but from the perspective of the "troublesome" daughter, then continues forward from where Papa's Wife concluded. I have barely begun Mama's Way, but it appears to not pick up where the last left off, but I could be wrong!

[K in MI]

#46: Milkweed (Spinelli)

#45: The Confirmation (Reed)

 

That puts me where I should be! :)

[NanceXToo]

I'm reading The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma to myself.

 

With my daughter, I'm reading Ronia, The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren.

[Stacia]

started reading Let the Great World Spin. I'm about 1/3 of the way through at this point and I'm really enjoying it. The writer has a way with descriptions that makes you feel that you're there. It's set in the Vietnam era, which I know very little about because my high school history class instruction always seemed to peter out once we hit the Korean War, so it's been very interesting. I can't wait to review this one.

 

I'll be looking for your review. I tried reading this book awhile ago, but just couldn't get into the story. But, I kept thinking I should try it again sometime. I loved his book "Dancer" & fell in love w/ his writing w/ that book. So, I was surprised how much of a hard time I was having w/ Let the Great World Spin.

 

I'm reading The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma to myself.

 

Also looking forward to your review of this!

[Violet Crown]

I finished

 

25. Tolstoy, Master and Man and Other Stories (Father Sergius, Master and Man, Hadji Murat); S. Rapaport and John Kenworthy, trs.

 

and, from various sources (and which I'm going to all count as one book),

 

26. Leon Garfield, The Comedy of Errors (from Shakespeare Stories II) [read-aloud]

Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors

Plautus, Menaechmi (from The Pot of Gold and Other Plays); E. F. Watling, tr.

 

As explanation, I'm doing some Shakespeare with Great Girl, so she and I are reading (and then seeing, if we can get it) various plays together with ancillary materials; Plautus' Menaechmi, for instance, being the source for The Comedy of Errors. The Leon Garfield version meanwhile gets read aloud to Middle Girl and Wee Girl (who keeps interrupting to demand a thorough explanation of what's going on). Next up, Titus Andronicus.

[Storm Bay]

Karin,

Sorry I missed your post yesterday!

 

I first heard about Papa's Wife a few years ago and am just now reading the trilogy!

 

This is mainly gentle, heartwarming writing about a Christian family and their life together, beginning in Lapland, then in America when the father, a preacher, accepts a call to America (which fulfills his wife's dream of raising their eight children in America where they can be *properly* educated).

 

From the book jacket: "The delightfully fresh and unaffected story of the Franzons' life together over a long period of golden years, a life lit by love and limitless trust in God."

 

The life, the friends, the inevitable troubles (both familial and in learning the life and the language of a new country) - the ways of life - told charmingly, sometimes humorously. These books were written in the 1950's and apparently are loosely based on the author's parents and her life.

 

From the back jacket: "Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn was born in a small village in Swedish Lapland. Like the Franzon family, there were four sisters and four brothers and their father was the pastor of a Baptist Church. She came with her family to America in 1924 when her father received a call from a Swedish church in Springfield, Massachusetts."

 

I finished Papa's Daughter yesterday; it begins briefly back at the beginning, but from the perspective of the "troublesome" daughter, then continues forward from where Papa's Wife concluded. I have barely begun Mama's Way, but it appears to not pick up where the last left off, but I could be wrong!

 

Thanks. I'll add that to my list when I want something gentle that's not heavy. First I'll see if I can get it through the library.

[Just Robyn]

I'm reading The Map of Time by Felix J. Palma to myself.

 

With my daughter, I'm reading Ronia, The Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren.

 

I read Ronia... to my kids recently. I LOVED it and can't stop thinking about it. Hope you guys like it too!

[Storm Bay]

Just checking to see if the new thread is up yet, but I'm too early.

[Robin M]

Link to week 47 - please continue conversation in new thread