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Book a Week in 2012 - Week 1: Ready, Set, Read!


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Happy New Year! Time to get our year long book party started. The goal is to read 52 books. How you get there is up to you. Welcome back to those jumping back in for another round and welcome to all those joining for the first time. Every Sunday I will post a weekly thread (generally around 10 pst) so we can discuss the books we are reading or going to read for the week.

 

 

We have a blog - 52 Books blog where we have other folks from around the blogosphere who will be posting links to their reads so be sure to check out what they are reading as well. Every Sunday I'll be posting about something bookish along with mr linky to link to your reviews for those who will be blogging about your reads. That is also the place to find the information on all the mini challenges. Plus I'll be coming up with miscellaneous ideas during the year challenging you to read outside your comfort zone and read different genres or pick a book based on a certain theme.

 

Speaking of challenging: I have a mission for you which will start mid January. Your first mission, should you choose to accept it, is to read "Ahab's Wife" by Sena Jeter Naslund and then tackle.....Moby Dick Thank you to Jennifer for the idea. We will let you know more details once we've figure out the plan.

 

I started a social group for 2012 Reading challenges so if you want to discuss books there as well you may.

 

Since most of us have amazon wishlists and I like the idea of surprising folks with books throughout the year, for those who'd like to participate, pm your links to your wishlists to me. I will come up with a master list and send it to those who are interested. That way we preserve privacy.

 

The rules are simple, easy, casual:

 

 

 

  1. The challenge will run from January 1, 2012 through December 31, 2012.
  2. Our book weeks will begin on Sunday.
  3. Participants may join at any time.
  4. All books are acceptable except children books.**
  5. All forms of books are acceptable including e-books, audio books, etc.
  6. Re-reads are acceptable as long as they are read after January 1, 2012.
  7. Books may overlap other challenges.

 

 

 

**in reference to children books. If it is a child whose reading it and involved in the challenge, then that's okay. If an adult is doing read aloud with kids, the book should be geared for the 9 - 12 age group and above and over 100 pages. If adult reading for own enjoyment, then a good rule of thumb to go by "is there some complexity to the story or is it too simple?" If it's too simple, then doesn't count.

 

Okay. Ready. Set. Read!

 

What are you reading this week?

Edited by Mytwoblessings
just general typing too fast mistakes
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This is my first year doing this. So, "Hi, my name is Nicole." My favorite book of all time is Jane Eyre and my favorite Author still writing is Richard Russo. I will try the challenge, but Moby Dick is currently the only assigned book that I did not finish. I was an English Lit major and I literally chucked that book across the room when I came to the second chapter on the whiteness of that whale!:tongue_smilie:

 

I will be reading a book for my book club that is totally out of my genre. The Shinning by Stephen King. I really don't like horror, but my book club likes to jump around and try new genre's, so here I go.

 

I don't have a blog yet (It is one of my goals for 2012), so I guess I just post here?

 

Thanks in advance for letting me join your group.

 

Nicole

 

Oh, and do educational books count? Deconstructing Penguins for instance?

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It's here! It's here! :)

 

We talked about starting Ahab's Wife the 2nd or 3rd week of January and I'm fine with sticking to that schedule. Everyone else ok with it?

 

I'll be finishing House Rules by Jodu Picoult today. It struck close with me because I have a son and DH with Aspberger's although thankfully not as severe as the main character in this book. It's also the first time in a really long time I had to cheat and read the ending. I was stressing out about the main character again.

 

After that, I'll be delving into So Much For That by Lionel Shriver which is a little ironic because some book reviewers call her the anti-Jodi Picoult. Shriver loves messy endings that disturb the reader. I will probably walk around in a funk after this but she makes me think. Hard.

 

I'm in the Shakespeare club too so I've started Midsummer too. I'm stretching it out to let it sink in and savor that one.

 

I'm in on the wish list!!! What an awesome idea!!!

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It's here! It's here! :)

 

We talked about starting Ahab's Wife the 2nd or 3rd week of January and I'm fine with sticking to that schedule. Everyone else ok with it?

 

I'll be finishing House Rules by Jodu Picoult today. It struck close with me because I have a son and DH with Aspberger's although thankfully not as severe as the main character in this book. It's also the first time in a really long time I had to cheat and read the ending. I was stressing out about the main character again.

 

After that, I'll be delving into So Much For That by Lionel Shriver which is a little ironic because some book reviewers call her the anti-Jodi Picoult. Shriver loves messy endings that disturb the reader. I will probably walk around in a funk after this but she makes me think. Hard.

 

I'm in the Shakespeare club too so I've started Midsummer too. I'm stretching it out to let it sink in and savor that one.

 

I'm in on the wish list!!! What an awesome idea!!!

 

Yup, I would like to join that challenge but need to put it on hold at the libary.

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I am on Chapter 4 of Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy, so that one will be ongoing for a bible study I am in. It's about biblical worldview and quite academic, but good. It's taking some of my bandwidth for other reading!

 

SO, because of that, I think this week I will read Kate Morton's House at Riverton. I want to also read Forgotten Garden by her, but I can't seem to get it from the library. This one is here on my bookshelf, so I'll dive in to it.

 

I have SO MANY good ones I want to read this year!!

 

My 11 year old is also joining me in the challenge. She is finishing the third in the Ursu series called Cronus Chronicles. She'll probably start The Fire Thief by Deary. She has a bunch of good ones she is looking forward to as well!

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I'm working on A Midsummer Night's Dream too. As well as How To Read a Book (that one will take a while - I'm going slow so it sinks in) and Adam and His Kin. I'm looking forward to the Ahab challenge. Now I need to go dust off my personal blog.

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Regarding Robin's January challenge, I simply adore Ahab's Wife. I read it several years ago and thought it was wonderful. But Moby Dick ... eh ... well, not so much. It is on my List of Books To Read Before I Die, though, so maybe I'll get around to it someday. ;) Anyone who'd like a crash course in whaling or Melville's background should check out American Experience's Into the Deep: America, Whaling, and the World. It is a fantastic documentary and available streaming on Netflix.

 

 

Thank you so much for the documentary suggestion!! I'll intersperse that with Whale Wars. :D

 

Have you read anything else by SJN? I ask because I have and I think Ahab's Wife has been her best work so far.

Edited by Jennifer3141
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Happy New Year!

 

Between being out of town over the holidays then bringing home a new puppy, I never got to join in the 2011 wrap up. I only got to 48 books last year as much of my reading time was taken up by moving one son across the country, visiting colleges with the other son, then getting consumed by the college application process. Here I thought I'd have more time once my kids were older, but life abhors a vacuum, right?

 

My year is starting out with Laurie King's Pirate King, and I've got Jack Maggs by Peter Carey book downloaded and ready to go on my iPad. I was talking books with a friend at a Christmas party, and he said Peter Carey is his all time favorite author, so I'm looking forward to starting that.

 

I highly recommend listening to the Moby Dick as read by Anthony Heald. You can listen to a sample here. It is a 24hour audio book, but he is a fabulous reader who brings out the Shakespearean poetry of Ahab's speeches, while not dragging out the descriptive passages. My ds and I listened to it in the fall of 2010. There is a new book Why Read Moby Dick which I haven't read, but which, according to reviews I've read, offers a very compelling analysis of the book. It is a thin book, too!

 

I have Ahab's Wife on my nightstand, so I'll be sure to read that this year. The San Diego Opera is doing Moby Dick, the opera, next month which my ds and I plan to attend!

 

Now for a stupid question. Should I be subscribing to this thread so I can find it as the week goes by? I have missed conversations this last year because I can't find the thread when in I check the boards, and I'm not on as much any more. Oh, and what is the wish list?

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I should finish Thrush Green today, although I read most of it yesterday. It went on my To Read list years ago thanks to a post on the old board, but I just got my hands on it in 2011.

 

Today I started The First Paul by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. The first chapter is titled "Paul: Appealing or Appalling?" and I'm curious to see if this book can make Paul appealing to me.

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I was wondering the same thing:001_huh:...I'll be working on my reading lists this week.

 

Now for a stupid question. Should I be subscribing to this thread so I can find it as the week goes by? I have missed conversations this last year because I can't find the thread when in I check the boards, and I'm not on as much any more. Oh, and what is the wish list?

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I've tried three others by Ms. Naslund: Sherlock in Love, Four Spirits, and Abundance. I couldn't finish any of them.

 

I was predisposed to like Ahab's Wife because (for some reason that completely escapes me) I am fascinated by the history of whaling in this country. I got hooked in to the subject by Nathaniel Philbrick's National Book Award winning In the Heart of the Sea, the true story on which Melville based Moby Dick. What really happened to those men on the whaleship Essex is incredible. I don't want to spoil anything for folks who might not know the story, but check out the documentary I mentioned earlier for sure and Philbrick's book if you want to know more.

 

 

Sherlock in Love is one of those books that makes me wonder how truly AWFUL books get published. Was there some form of alcoholism involved during the writing of that book??? Drugs? Did SJN write it in a weekend and never go back and reread??

 

I thought 4 Spirits was ok. It didn't hit me like Ahab's though.

 

And I think I tried Abundance but I'm not sure which isn't a good sign, but I threw it on my wish list. I'm bypassing Adam & Eve, not because I'm an atheist but because the reviews for it are just as horrible as Sherlock...

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I am finishing up Neptune's Son, which technically is last years book....so I will be starting out behind one....oh well. I should finish it today....and then....I have a few on my night table, such as 3 Josephine Tey mysteries and The Shack.

 

I will be including our read alouds...as they are all over 100 pages and definitely family focused...good for us all....

 

Faithe

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I've got two in progress: Ursula Le Guin's The Farthest Shore, 3rd in the Earthsea series and The Paleo Diet which I put on hold months ago after some mention of it in a thread here.

 

I read Ahab's Wife for our book club years ago and don't remember much about it except that I wasn't crazy about it. I think I found it too much of a modern book--modern viewpoints, modern character--for a historical fiction book. But I don't remember much of the plot at all! No big desire to jump into Moby Dick either...maybe someday.

 

Happy Reading all!

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I decided to make this one of my goal's this year, so here I am. I am excited. My ds wants to try to, but we will see. I told him any number of books working towards the goal is an accomplishment.

 

My book is "The Meaning of Marriage", by Timothy Keller. I think the Amazon Wishlist is a neat idea. I will have to send that over. And I am considering starting a blog, but we will see.

 

Happy Reading!

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I decided to ensure my inability to read a whole book in one week this year, and started War and Peace. See you in March....

 

:lol: I will join you in the ensured-to-take-forever lounge!

 

I just started Liping Ma's Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics. I DO NOT like to read this style of writing, but after all the great reviews I decided that I would make it my first goal so that I can reward myself with a great classical book more to my taste when I am done.

 

Oh, and I am on the 12 in 2012 plan. If I can get through 12 challenging books this year I will be thrilled. We read a lot for school, so this will be my method of ensuring that I actually get to the more difficult books on my list.

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I would recommend this book. I read it last year during the challenge, and I learned SOOO much about whaling in this country. I have always had "Moby Dick" on my list to read but found excuses so after the Agatha Christie book I found and started Friday, I will move on to "Moby Dick". Hope you all enjoy "Ahab's Wife" - good reading and best wishes for 2012!

 

ReneeR

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Last year I was afraid to take the challenge so I just kept track of my own reading. Wonder of wonders, I read more than 52 books last year. This year, thanks to finally keeping track of what I read, I'm definitely ready to play with others.

 

Currently reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot DĂƒÂ­az. Right now I'm thinking the book isn't brief and the life isn't wondrous. We'll see how it turns out.

 

The whalers challenge sounds fun so I'll be putting both books on my library list.

 

Next up for me is a biography of Ben Franklin.

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Thanks in advance for letting me join your group.

 

Nicole

 

Oh, and do educational books count? Deconstructing Penguins for instance?

 

 

Happy to have you. Non fiction craft books about eduction do count.

 

 

It's here! It's here! :)

 

We talked about starting Ahab's Wife the 2nd or 3rd week of January and I'm fine with sticking to that schedule. Everyone else ok with it?

 

Sounds good. How do we want to do this? Certain number of chapters a day or just go for it.

 

Now for a stupid question. Should I be subscribing to this thread so I can find it as the week goes by? I have missed conversations this last year because I can't find the thread when in I check the boards, and I'm not on as much any more. Oh, and what is the wish list?

 

There are no stupid questions. :001_smile: Subscribe to this thread. Each week I will link to the thread before it. Subscribe to the new thread, unsubscribe to the old or not, your choice.

 

I decided to ensure my inability to read a whole book in one week this year, and started War and Peace. See you in March....

 

Enjoy. I read it last year!

 

 

 

My first reads of the year: The Rose Labyrinth by Titanie Hardie. It's last year pick a book by it's cover winner. Just now getting around to reading it. Also on my nook reading "The Game On Diet" since doing something similar with a group of online writing friends. I'm off to take down the christmas tree and watch Mr. Poppers Penguins with my guys, so will check back in later to any other questions. :grouphug:

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So excited to jump in this week and begin the challenge!!!

 

I'm reading People of the Mist by H. Rider Haggard. Fascinating adventure book! Has kept me on my toes:)

 

I read "She, A History of Adventure" while I was pregnant with my third and LOVED it. It was just a really fun book.

 

I got a few books for Christmas so I started on Condi Rice's new book "No Higher Honor" today...

 

So count me in!

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I'm starting with The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

 

I saw it listed on the thread "Best Books I read this year."

 

The premise sounded interesting so I'm diving in :001_smile:

 

That was my favorite fiction of 2011 and one of my favorites of all time!:)

 

I finished Confessions of a Prairie B!tch at about 12:10 this morning.:tongue_smilie:

 

I started In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke right after that and am 100 pages in. I'm reading it based on some recommendations here. So far, I like it.

 

After that, I'm moving on to The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.

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I decided to ensure my inability to read a whole book in one week this year, and started War and Peace. See you in March....

 

Sharon, you remain my hero.

 

I, on the other hand, am beginning with a book that may not even qualify by the rules of the game. At the library I noticed Albert Marrin's latest, Flesh and Blood so Cheap: The Triangle Fire and its Legacy. My son was a huge fan of Marrin back in middle school years. This latest volume was a finalist for the National Book Award in the Young People's Literature category.

 

Marrin does not just report on the fire. He provides a history of of the immigrants who worked in New York's factories and describes their lives in the tenements as well as conditions in the sweatshops. It was the collection of photos in this book that initially led me to borrow it. Not finished yet but I believe that those of you with middle school aged children studying 20th century American history may want to take a look at this book.

 

After I wrap this up, I am moving to the book selected by Diane Rehm as her January read: Frederic Forsyth's novel The Day of the Jackal. I finished 2011 by rereading le Carre espionage books so this old thriller based on an assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle seems in the same nostalgic vein.

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This week I'm reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini. I'm on the hunt for more challenging books that are engaging for DS9, so I plan to do quite a bit of pre-reading for him over the next few months. Hopefully that will yield me a list that keeps him busy for awhile so I can read some books I've been wanting to get to.

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I love the enthusiasm I am sensing in the previous posts!

 

I just have to say that last night I finished my 80th book for 2011.:D I am delighted!

 

Today, I started a hastily grabbed biography. I was so thrilled to finish that book last night, that I failed to think about what I would like to start the year with.:001_smile: So, as we were heading out the door to church, I snatched the book on the top of my current Christmas-gift stack to be read. After church, we had to stop by the store for a couple things. While dh and ds braved the cold rain and the piercing crowd, I stayed behind and read the first couple chapters in book one of the new year.:D

 

#1 - This Is My Life, by Thyra Ferre´ Bjorn. While it is autobiographical, it begins later in her life, at the time of the publication of her first novel.

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I finished Confessions of a Prairie B!tch at about 12:10 this morning.:tongue_smilie:

 

 

A couple months ago I watched an interview with her. Since then I wanted to read her book. I'm going to have to put that on my list.

 

My husband just left to return to Ohio, so we probably won't see him again for two months. Feeling pretty sad, so I'm looking for lots of fluff (or funny, light) - at least for a week or two.

 

I'm almost finished with Chasing China: A Daughter's Quest for Truth by Kay Bratt. It was a free Kindle book, but I noticed last night that they are charging for it now.

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I'm in! Here is what I would like to read:

 

1. The Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell

2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

3. Lark Rise to Candleford: A Trilogy by Flora Thompson

4. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy

5. The Forsyte Saga To Let by John Galsworthy

6. The Complete Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton

7. Pride and Prejudice by Austen

8. Sense and Sensibility by Austen

9. Northanger Abbey by Austen

10. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

11. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

12. Persuasion by Austen

13. Quest for a Maid (children's book)

14. Who Comes With Cannons (children's book)

15. Adam of the Road (children's book)

16. Bullfinch's Mythology

17. The Porcupine Year (children's book)

18. Hercules by Geraldine McCaughrean (children's book)

19. Cuentos del Pobre Diablo (children's book)

20. Un Caballo Llamado Libertad (children's book)

21. The Early Middle Ages (children's book)

22. Elizabethan England (children's book)

23. The Enlightenment (children's book)

24. Famous Men of the Middle Ages (children's book)

25. Famous Men of the Renaissance and Reformation (children's book)

26. Famous Men of Rome

27. Re-read: A Room with a View

28. Re-read: Howard's End

29. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

30 - 38. Re-read: Little House Books 1-7 plus Farmer Boy

31. Re-read: The Underground City (Child of the Cavern) (Black Indies) by Jules Verne

32. Re-read: Apres La Pluie Le Beau Temps by Comtesse de Segur

33. Re-read: Francois le Bossu by Comtesse de Segur

34. Re-read: L'Auberge de l'Ange Gardien by Comtesse de Segur

35. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

36. Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

37. Re-read: Count of Monte Cristo by A.Dumas

38. Re-read: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle

39. Re-read: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle

40. Re-read: The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle

41. Re-read: His Last Bow by Doyle

42. Re-read: The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes by Doyle

43. Re-read: A Study in Scarlet by Doyle

44. Re-read: The Sign of Four by Doyle

45. Re-read: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Doyle

46. Re-read: The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle

47. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (abridged)

48. The White Company by Doyle

49. Beowulf retold by Edwin Morgan

50. The Trumpeter of Krakow (children's book)

51. Luther biography of a reformer by Frederick Nohl

52. The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente

 

I know I have a lot of children's books--but

I need to read these anyway for my homeschooling anyway, and I

understand children's books are acceptable if certain rules are met (they are).

 

I am so looking forward to this!!!

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I'm going to give this a shot again. I don't think I made it past the first week last year. :tongue_smilie: I do read a lot, I just don't finish a book every week. A lot of the books on my list will be children's read alouds and non-fiction. The first book I'm reading (I hope this counts) is:

 

Simplicity Parenting: Using the Extraordinary Power of Less to Raise Calmer, Happier, and More Secure Kids, by Kim John Payne

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I decided to ensure my inability to read a whole book in one week this year, and started War and Peace. See you in March....

 

:lol: I had been thinking about reading War and Peace but just finished Anna Karenina, and that took me two full months. I do love Tolstoy, but I think I'll take a short break from him. Keep us posted on War and Peace. If you don't post until March, I will sorely miss your posts, Sharon.

 

This past week along with Anna Karenina, I finished Great Expectations (which I've been reading aloud to my girls since September!) and Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. All three of those are now on my favorite books ever list, and so the end of the year was a wonderful grand finale.

 

Now, I'm reading 18yos's favorite read last year, Unbroken. And he's reading my favorite read from last year, Island of the World.

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I only made it about halfway last year, but I'm hoping to do better this time around. At least I'm off to a good start. My 3yo fell asleep in my lap so I squeezed in 2 hours of uninterrupted reading time this afternoon. I read Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half by Economides and reviewed it on my blog. Up next Beowulf by Heaney and probably a reread of Sink Reflections by Cilley.

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I have my list all nicely set up in chronological order on my blog, so of course I disobeyed myself and started today by finishing Undine, by FouquĂƒÂ©, and starting All's Quiet on the Western Front, by Remarque.

 

The two works are just a bit of a contrast.

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Hooray! I'm so excited!

 

We're having a busy week this week this week (visiting family left today, more arriving on Tuesday, I'm still banging my head against Don Quixote), so I'm taking it easy on myself. I'll be reading Salvador by Joan Didion--a re-read of a book I love but haven't looked at in years.

 

Good luck, everyone!

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I'm halfway through the third book in a trilogy called 'Wiping Out the Tracks'. It's by an Australian Leslie Schubert. It chronicles his life & thoughts. It's quite interesting, and more so because we knew his older sister well (she passed away this year at age 87), as well as being set in our state mostly.

 

Incredible to think of the progress in our civilization from the beginnings of his life (1925) to current.

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