Violet Crown Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Wow, you're all reading 3/4 books per week? I just can't fit them in. I love to read, and pre-kids could easily read 3 or 4 per week, but not now. I'm impressed! Don't worry, plenty of us are in the same boat. I modified it to my personal challenge of a book every other week, which is realistic for my life. The function of The Challenge for me last year was to keep me focused on taking opportunities for reading whenever possible, and I was thrilled at how much I did manage. Join me on the Slow Reader 26 Books Challenge?:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhschool Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I started reading Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray. (Newbery Medal Winner, so children's book.) It is about the son of a minstrel in the year 1294 in England. It is very good so far. I will update when I finish it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunD Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Wow, you're all reading 3/4 books per week? I just can't fit them in. I love to read, and pre-kids could easily read 3 or 4 per week, but not now. I'm impressed! Well, I can only speak for myself. I have a 4mo who is waking up to nurse twice per night, which takes about half an hour each time. I also sit in bed with him and the two girls enforcing nap time every day, which takes another half hour. So even on the craziest day, I get about an hour and a half of this nursing time. He makes a very good book stand. Whoops, I forgot to account for my week! 1. The Handmaid's Tale 2. Island in a Storm 3. The Hooked X (should finish tonight) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorMama Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Island of the Blue Dolphins and Phantom Tollbooth are two of my all-time favorite books! I actually bought a beautiful hardcover copy of the Phantom Tollbook when I was in my early 20s and still single to give to the children I'd someday have :lol: And DD9 is currently in the middle of IotBD right now! :lol: I also bought this copy of Phantom Tollbooth long, long ago. I think my DD was an infant, and I saw it in the bookstore and knew she'd love it...someday... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparkle Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 (edited) Here I am, at the last minute, but I didn't want to miss posting the very first week :) I read The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party by Alexander McCall Smith, which was fabulous, as expected. I also read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, which I enjoyed thoroughly, and will be looking to own my own copy. Currently reading The Box of Delights by John Masefield. I did not care for his other book, The Midnight Folk, so I'm not really sure why I picked this one up, but it's OK so far, so I'll keep reading it. Oh, duh, I forgot to say that I finished reading Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father by John Matteson, which I started last year. It was an excellent book, and gave a lot of insight into two very interesting people, and had fascinating information on their contemporaries living in Concord: Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne. Edited January 8, 2012 by Sparkle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WarriorMama Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Okay, I haven't finished Island of the Blue Dolphins yet, but I probably will this evening. The reason I haven't finished it yet is because I got distracted reading Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson. I don't know if it officially counts since it's not super long and a big chunk of it is, you know, photos...but wow, did I ever learn a lot about photography! I actually used my camera on manual the whole time we were at the zoo today and had decent results. Yippee!! So my first week comes out to: 1. Little House on the Prairie 2. Farmer Boy 3. Two Against the North 4. Never Cry Wolf 5. Understanding Exposure And if I finish tonight, #6 will be Island of the Blue Dolphins! I think I love this challenge. Can't wait to hit all the library books I picked up yesterday! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MicheleinMN Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 I read Original Sin by P.D. James. Then watched in on Netflix too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Wow, you're all reading 3/4 books per week? I just can't fit them in. I love to read, and pre-kids could easily read 3 or 4 per week, but not now. I'm impressed! Everyone reads at different rates and in different ways. Some can read several books at a time and others only one at a time. Some read fast and some read slow. Some read heavy duty books and others light. The most important thing I can stress is it makes me happy to see so many folks reading and enjoying it. Don't worry about the numbers. Join in at your own rate and see how you do. You may surprise yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacia Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Finished Skippy Dies today. In one word, WHOA. What a weird, twisted, wonderful, effed-up, roller-coaster of a book. Unlike anything I've ever read. VERY VERY VERY graphic- lots of s*x and dr*g content, lots of high school boy content ;). But AH-MAY-ZING. Music, string theory, farts, suicide, anorexia, love, philosophy, Frisbee. Wow. I need to read some fluff now. :lol: Thanks for the review! I think I definitely need to read it. I just finished Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. I was slightly disappointed. I'm still trying to figure out why. Hmmm. I have that sitting here (for my book club) but have been feeling no motivation to pick it up & read it. :tongue_smilie: I may have to go to book club this time w/out reading it & just join the gals for dinner & gossip. :lol: 3. Welcome to the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Liked but didn't love this one. The beginning was very good, and there were sections that were amazing and evocative. But overall, I didn't connect to the story or the characters particularly deeply. I just returned this one to the library today after trying the first few chapters. I just couldn't get into it. Glad to know that I may not be missing much. I've had trouble liking/reading different Pulitzer Prize Fiction winners -- I try them & just can't get into them (w/ the major exception of Middlesex, which is a great book). Anyone else have this problem w/ particular award-winning books? However, the Man Booker prizes seem to be more in line w/ my reading tastes -- I've found some wonderful books through the Man Booker lists. Speaking of that, I'm now starting The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, a novel that was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. Love the graphic art/double picture of the cover. From the Man Booker Prize website: "From the author of the acclaimed Ablutions, this dazzlingly original novel is a darkly funny, offbeat western about a reluctant assassin and his murderous brother. Oregon, 1851. Eli and Charlie Sisters, notorious professional killers, are on their way to California to kill a man named Hermann Kermit Warm. On the way, the brothers have a series of unsettling and violent experiences in the Darwinian landscape of Gold Rush America. Charlie makes money and kills anyone who stands in his way; Eli doubts his vocation and falls in love. And they bicker a lot. Then they get to California, and discover that Warm is an inventor who has come up with a magical formula, which could make all of them very rich. What happens next is utterly gripping, strange and sad. Told in deWitt’s darkly comic and arresting style, The Sisters Brothers is the kind of western the Coen Brothers might write – stark, unsettling and with a keen eye for the perversity of human motivation. Like his debut novel Ablutions, it is a novel about the things you tell yourself in order to be able to continue to live the life you find yourself in, and what happens when those stories no longer work. It is an inventive and strange and beautifully controlled piece of fiction and displays an exciting expansion of Dewitt’s range." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abeth78 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Wanted to jump in and say whew (!), I tried hard this week and didn't quite get my short read finished. Like some others I used to 3 books a week easy but preggo with #3 ( other 2 are 4 and 16 mo). I am not reading so much these days. I should finish Siblings Withut Rivalry sometime tomorrow. I had to put down Laura Ling's Somewhere Inside down because we were sick in this house all week and the first chapter (about the actual abduction) was too heavy. I am looking forward to picking it up this week though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzq Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Everyone reads at different rates and in different ways. Some can read several books at a time and others only one at a time. Some read fast and some read slow. Some read heavy duty books and others light. The most important thing I can stress is it makes me happy to see so many folks reading and enjoying it. Don't worry about the numbers. Join in at your own rate and see how you do. You may surprise yourself. With this encouraging quote I will join in on the fun. Right now I am reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negin Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Mitten Strings for God: Reflections for Mothers in a Hurry by Katrina KenisonThis small book is a collection of the author's essays on mothering. I read this and enjoyed it when my dc were very young. I also read a completly frivolous book today: Oh No She Didn't: The Top 100 Style Mistakes Women Make and How to Avoid Them by Clinton Kelly. Stacia, thanks for your great review of Mozart's Last Aria. Yes, it would be ideal to have a 70/30 mix of truth in historical fiction. :) Dd and I LOVE Clinton Kelly. We watch "What Not to Wear" together. Mother-daughter bonding experience, as well as Tim Gunn. I have another book by Clinton & Stacy. I was very close to ordering the one you read, but then the reviews made me not so sure about buying. He is very entertaining and hilariously funny. I follow him on FB and he cracks me up. :lol: He's often so funny on TV also. :D Everyone reads at different rates and in different ways. Some can read several books at a time and others only one at a time. Some read fast and some read slow. Some read heavy duty books and others light. The most important thing I can stress is it makes me happy to see so many folks reading and enjoying it. Don't worry about the numbers. Join in at your own rate and see how you do. You may surprise yourself. Beautifully said. Thank you. :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Negin Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Fairytalemama, I love your blog. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monkey Island Academy Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 For week 1 I have finished Dark Tide:The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 and my full review is Here. This week I have started reading Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. A collection of Pulitzer Prize winning short stories focusing on the experience of being an Indian immigrant in the United States. Full of emotion,culture, tradition and human experience. Also reading: The Rhythm of the Family by Amanda Blake Soule and Stephen Soule. I have read and enjoyed Soule Mama's previous two books and am looking forward to hearing about her family's activities as they relate to the rhythms of the seasons and the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAMom Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 With this encouraging quote I will join in on the fun. Right now I am reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I read that one for the first time last year and I loved it!:) I'm almost done with book #3 for the week but some weeks I don't make it through a whole book. Just depends on the lengths of the books and the intensity of my weekly schedule.:) This week: Confessions of a Prairie B!tch The Glass Castle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Link to week 2 - please continue conversation in new thread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 This one is going on my list for this year. Dawn I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. I think this is going to be my favorite book of the year. Loved loved loved it! I read it in one day it was so good. 51 more books to go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DawnM Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Week 1 I read Water for Elephants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abeille Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Glad to know that I may not be missing much. I've had trouble liking/reading different Pulitzer Prize Fiction winners -- I try them & just can't get into them (w/ the major exception of Middlesex, which is a great book). Anyone else have this problem w/ particular award-winning books? I do have that problem with quite a few award-winning titles, yes. And I agree that Middlesex was a great book! Speaking of that, I'm now starting The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, a novel that was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. I forgot that I have this on my iPod! Think I just found my new fiction read... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 8, 2012 Author Share Posted January 8, 2012 Please continue all conversations in new thread no matter what book you are on. Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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