Book a Week in 2012 - Week 3

[*Lulu*]

Alright, I took a detour last week and read books two and three of the Christopher Paolini Inheritance Cycle. I read the first one to see if DS would like them, and I liked it so much I decided to keep reading the series. I figure it is good for the kids to see me devouring books, right? :D

 

This week I am waiting for the fourth book, and reading Anne Perry's Acceptable Loss. I also have a couple of non-fiction going, but none of them will done this week.

[Stacia]

I finished In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut. Wow. The book centers on a fictional character, yet Galgut refers to him as both 'he' and 'I' at various points in the text, making it feel like it's really not fiction at all, but rather autobiographical. It also makes you feel close to the main character, then very far away, & back again. He also doesn't use traditional punctuation (i.e., quotes, question marks), but it fits perfectly w/ the flow of his narrative.

 

The prose seems simple enough, telling 3 separate stories of a South African backpacker's travels in the world & the people he encounters/is with/drifts away from on these trips. He's an astute observer of humans, himself especially, & has a fine touch at conveying the myriad emotions of travel, encountering others (some good, some bad), the lonliness, the musings of someone traveling alone w/ no specific schedule or destination in mind. Overall, there is a melancholy tone to the book, yet it's riveting, simple, and straight-forward at the same time.

 

I love to travel, though I've never really done backpacking per se. Reading this book makes me wish American culture in general embraced this idea more (which seems so prevalent in many European countries & various other countries as well). It's not just a journey to a place, it's a journey through oneself.

[Enough]

I finished two VERY DIFFERENT :lol: books yesterday:

 

By Heart: A Mother's Story of Children and Learning at Home by Kathleen Melin

 

and

 

Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks

 

By Heart is non-fiction- a short, honest, inspirational, and really lovely glimpse into one family's homeschooling journey. Highly recommended! :)

 

Lost Memory of Skin is fiction and has all these four- and five-star reviews and kudos from other authors I love (Margaret Atwood, for one). I found parts of this book incredibly thought-provoking, engaging, and brilliantly written, and I thought one of the main characters (the Kid) was superbly done- I found him very real, multidimensional, and I could sympathize with him. Overall, though- and especially the ending- this book irritated and disgusted me. Huge swaths of the book seemed to be just Banks blathering on and on about something that (to me at least) had no purpose whatsoever other than to prove that he could write a whole page without using any punctuation. :lol:

 

And while I know that the subject matter of the book (s*x offenders, p*rn) inherently has major discomfort/squeamish factor, I'm generally able to tolerate quite a bit of this in writing (hence my appreciation of Atwood). With this book, though, there were many parts where I was shouting inside my head- "I get it! I GET IT! I.GET.IT. JUST MOVE ON ALREADY!!!" Again, it seemed like Banks was overdoing it just for the sake of being risque and/or seeing how many different (and bad) ways he could describe a body part, and not for the purpose of actually furthering or enhancing the plot.

 

And the ending? It seemed like Banks just GAVE UP writing at the end. Like, really? You go THAT FAR for the whole book and grow your character THAT MUCH and then you just end it like this? Abruptly? With no real resolution or even remotely satisfying ending? This was one of those books that I slammed shut, really perturbed at having wasted all that time for nothing.

 

So to make a long story short, I don't recommend this book. :tongue_smilie:

 

I may try to squeeze in Hunger Games before this week is over, but if I don't finish it, it will be my read for next week, along with Ahab's Wife, which I'm 3/4 through.

 

I know it's only been a few weeks, but I just wanted to say thank you to mytwoblessings and everyone participating in this and all the 52 Books threads. This challenge has reinvigorated my bookworminess and that has brought me so much happiness. :001_wub: (In spite of having read some crappy books. :lol:)

[partyof5]

Just finished up All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. Interesting...I enjoyed listening to it better than reading it in book form because the lack of punctuation makes me crazy. But there is something lyrical and beautiful about some of the descriptions. The story moves slowly in terms of action, but the rhythm with which the book flows when read aloud is something special. I know not all books are great in audio, but I'm glad to have heard this one. Just picked up the movie at the library too.

 

Grabbed Ahab's Wife while I was at the library and am hoping to give it a go and get started this weekend. I would never do this without all of you along for the journey!! ;) Hope I can keep up...

 

Finished so far:

1. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone

2. The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society (audio)

3. My Name is Asher Lev

4. All the Pretty Horses (audio)

 

Currently reading:

The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. This is cute and going quickly.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond (to keep up with kids--never read it before)

The House of Seven Gables (before our tour of Salem MA soon with a friend)

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets (audio)

[RainySunday]

Well, we here in the Northwest have had a wild weather week...I posted this on FB earlier this afternoon:

This week, by the numbers....

2: number of trees across our driveway

2: number of holes in our chicken coop

3: number of times the power went out

3: number of times Cody won at Settlers

4: gallons of kerosene we went through

4: number of trees down/dead on our property

16+:inches of snow

24: times we played settlers of cattan/cities and knights

51: temp in the house when we woke up yesterday

53: number of hours the power was out this last time

605: pages I read in Ahab's Wife

 

However, since then, I finished Ahab's Wife. I loved the book...maybe not some of the things that happened, of course, but what a great book! I fell in sometime last Sunday and emerged today.

 

Next, I will be reading The Hunger Games since someone so generously sent it to me (thank you!)! Looks good!

 

3. Ahab's Wife Sena Jeter Naslund

2. When Will There Be Good News Kate Atkinson

1. 77 Shadow Street Dean Koontz

[Stacia]

Well, tonight, I finally read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I do believe I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't yet read this series. :lol: (I have seen the movies, though.)

 

Loved it, of course.

 

My Goodreads Page

 

2012 Books Read:

01. Mozart's Last Aria by Matt Rees (HHH)

02. Oh No She Didn't by Clinton Kelly (HH 1/2, if you're in the right mood, lol)

03. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (HHH 1/2)

04. In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (HHH 1/2)

05. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (HHHHH)

[RainySunday]

Well, tonight, I finally read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I do believe I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't yet read this series. :lol: (I have seen the movies, though.)

 

Loved it, of course.

 

My Goodreads Page

 

2012 Books Read:

01. Mozart's Last Aria by Matt Rees (HHH)

02. Oh No She Didn't by Clinton Kelly (HH 1/2, if you're in the right mood, lol)

03. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt (HHH 1/2)

04. In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut (HHH 1/2)

05. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling (HHHHH)

 

I've never read them either!

[Robin M]

I know it's only been a few weeks, but I just wanted to say thank you to mytwoblessings and everyone participating in this and all the 52 Books threads. This challenge has reinvigorated my bookworminess and that has brought me so much happiness. :001_wub: (In spite of having read some crappy books. :lol:)

 

Happy Dance!!!!!

[Robin M]

605: pages I read in Ahab's Wife

 

However, since then, I finished Ahab's Wife. I loved the book...maybe not some of the things that happened, of course, but what a great book! I fell in sometime last Sunday and emerged today.

 

 

I just resurfaced myself. Lots to think about!

[Robin M]

Before I forget again, every saturday

 

 

Semicolon hosts "The Saturday Review of Books."

 

Another place to link your reviews and also discover more books.

[Mommyfaithe]

I'm not Halcyon, but she was reading 11/22/63 by Stephen King.

 

Thanks...I love SK.

[Outdoorsy Type]

I got addicted to Downton Abbey early this week, and then had a migraine on Thursday, so it cut down on my reading time significantly! :tongue_smilie:

 

I'm most of the way through my fifth book,1984. I thought that was appropriate with all the SOPA/PIPA kerfluffle going on. :D I should finish it up tonight.

[partyof5]

Well, tonight, I finally read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I do believe I'm the only person on the planet who hasn't yet read this series. :lol:

 

 

I just read it a couple of weeks ago for the first time so you're in good company, and I haven't even seen the movies! I must live under a rock. ;)

[Rosyl]

I finished 2 more this week.

7) Little Men, Louisa May Alcott on Audio I have enjoyed this book so much more as a mom with 3 boys.

6) Winter of the Red Snow. Dear America book for my daughters book club. I Liked it much better than the American Girl books.

5)The Daniel Fast by Susan Gregory.

4) A Wedding Quilt for Ella by Jerry Eicher

3) Longing by Karen Kingsbury.

2) Little Women by Alcott

1) Midummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare.

[Melinda in VT]

This week I finished Scarlett Feather by Maeve Binchy. It was recommended by several people on the board last month, when I was looking for Irish books for my trip. I did less reading on the trip than I thought I might, so this book became my exercise book. (I can read on my Kindle while I use my elliptical machine.) It was enjoyable enough that I'll probably pick up other books about these characters next time I'm in the mood for light and fluffy books, but not so enjoyable that I'm making a special trip to the library to get the other books.

 

I also read Brunelleschi's Dome, an account of the building of the dome on the cathedral in Florence. It's the highest, widest masonry dome ever built, and Brunelleschi figured out how to do it without wooden supports. I found this book fascinating, although reading it gave me height vertigo at times.

My only complaint is that there were a few times I could have used more drawings and a couple of the drawings could have been better labeled.

 

I just started Galileo's Daughter. (We're going to Florence for a week in April, so I'll be doing a lot of Italy-themed reading for the next couple of months.)

 

6. Brunelleschi's Dome

5. Scarlett Feather

4. Dandelion Fire

3. 100 Cupboards

2. The First Paul

1. Thrush Green

[Mom-ninja.]

7) Little Men, Louisa May Alcott on Audio I have enjoyed this book so much more as a mom with 3 boys.

 

I read that 2 years ago. I read the whole series. I cried so much. I had to take a break from Alcott due to all the crying. Beautiful stories though.

 

 

I finished Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict and while I like it, I liked the first book better. A few of you mentioned liking time travel books. This one and the first one, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict are time travel. Fun, fluffy time travel books with lots of Austen quotes and references. Perfect. :D

 

I also have to confess that I'm returning Ahab's Wife to the library. I'm just not feeling like that type of book right now. I started A.J. Jacob's The Year of Living Biblically. It's been on my wish list for some time now, and I just got it through paperback swap.

[Storm Bay]

I totally think she's a better non-fictino than fiction writer. I did like this book, though. Intersesting view and rang true to me- we've lived in CA and a close friend of ours (former homeschooler)kidnaped their own kid to take them to a wilderness camp- he was doing lots of drugs and dealing out of their home. Just finished Grace (Eventually) and I though many of her essays ended weakly. I have been thinking a lot about her writing though. If interested you can read my thoughts here and here.

 

Thanks for yoru links & thoughts on this:001_smile:.

 

I'm always hesitant to read spin offs of novels. I find myself intrigued, but feel like I'm cheating on the original author of the character.

 

:iagree: I tried to read a sequel to Pride & Prejudice, which is the only Austen novel I really like, thanks to the mini series that starred David Rintoul, but it was horrible. She added a wild kissing scene when they got engaged & then every other chapter was about s*x. She had all this bad stuff happening with Lyddie & her dh & the author obviously missed the ENTIRE point of what Jane Austen was doing with Pride and Prejudice. I hope I never try that again.

[Clear Creek]

I went on a retreat with my husband this week, so I had lots of time for reading. The first book I read was Summer Breeze, by Catherine Palmer and Gary Chapman. It is second in a series authored by the two of them, and it (like the first book) was excellent. I enjoy Catherine Palmer's style of writing, and with the help of Gary Chapman she portrayed marriages in a very realistic manner and showed steps that could be taken to improve areas in a marriage without coming across as a how-to manual.

 

The second, third, and fourth books I read were the three books in The Postcards from Pullman series by Judith Miller. The books were titled In the Company of Secrets, Whispers Along the Rails, and An Uncertain Dream. The series was set in the late 1800's in the town of Pullman, Illinois, where the Pullman railway cars were designed and built. While the topics of railway cars and railroad strikes are not highly interesting to me, the story line caught me up enough that after reading the first book in paperback, I immediately downloaded the next two onto my Kindle. There are a variety of recipes included at the end of each book that look rather easy (and delicious).

 

The fifth book I read (I told you I had plenty of uninterrupted reading time this week, most weeks won't look anything like this!) was Ruby by Lorraine Snelling. I thoroughly enjoyed this light read about a proper eastern young lady that inherits (of all things!) a brothel/saloon from her long-lost father when he dies.

 

I began reading Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline, but I was reading a borrowed copy so I have to get a copy of my own and finish it. So far it was very interesting and thought-provoking.

 

So for this week, my books are:

#4 Summer Breeze by Catherine Palmer and Gary Chapman

#5 In the Company of Secrets by Judith Miller

#6 Whispers Along the Rails by Judith Miller

#7 An Uncertain Dream by Judith Miller

#8 Ruby by Lorraine Snelling

[Stacia]

I'm about 1/2way through one I found on the 'new' shelf at the library: The Infernals by John Connolly.

 

So far, it's funny & makes me think of Percy Jackson books (for the next-step-up-crowd) mixed w/ Terry Pratchett. :lol: I'm really enjoying it so far & have had some lol moments. (Apparently this one is a sequel, though I've had no trouble picking up the storyline.)

 

Book description from amazon:

"From

New York Times

bestselling author John Connolly, a wonderfully strange and brilliant novel about a boy, his dog, and their struggle to escape the wrath of demons. Young Samuel Johnson is in trouble. Not only is his eyesight so poor that he mistakenly asks out a letter box on a date, but an angry demon is seeking revenge for Samuel’s part in foiling the invasion of Earth by the forces of evil. It wants to get its claws on Samuel, and when Samuel and his faithful dachshund, Boswell, are pulled through a portal into the dark realm, the home of the Infernals, it gets its chance.

 

But catching Samuel is not going to be easy, for the Infernals have not reckoned on the bravery and cleverness of a boy and his dog, or the loyalty of Samuel’s friend, the hapless demon Nurd, or the presence of two clueless policemen and the unlucky, if cheerfully optimistic, driver of an ice-cream van.

 

Most of all, no one has planned on the intervention of an unexpected band of little men, for Samuel and Boswell are not the only inhabitants of Earth who have found themselves in the underworld. If you thought demons were frightening, just wait until you meet Mr. Merryweather’s Elves. . . ."

 

 

[Halcyon]

This week I have begun

 

[8]Skippy Dies-currently reading

[9]Love Wins by Rob Bell-currently reading

 

So far I am enjoying Skippy Dies (thank you to the WTMer who recommended this). It's not as good as Stephen King's latest, which is probably the best book I've read in a long time ,but I'm enjoying it!

[Halcyon]

Thanks...I love SK.

 

It was AMAZING--I gobbled it up in less than a week, and it's a big book--coulnd't put it down. Highly Recommended. Here's the link on Amazon.

[Halcyon]

I'm always hesitant to read spin offs of novels. I find myself intrigued, but feel like I'm cheating on the original author of the character.

 

 

 

 

 

As a rule, I don't read Stephen King. I do not read horror, gory, or too disturbing books. My sister told me I have to read his The Eyes of the Dragon. She says it's not scary. Is this one disturbing in any way?

 

Ever since I became a mother I just can't handle disturbing or scary as I once could.

 

I put all my other books aside and picked up WTM to read the logic section. I need a refresher. :)

 

It is absolutely not a "typical" King book-but I think he's always been pegged (wrongly) as a pure "horror" writer. He's not. He's amazing. For those of you who enjoy writing, his book On Writing is a keeper. Do not get "turned off" by the fact that it's by Stephen King--you'll be pleasantly surprised. No gore ;)

[Halcyon]

Which one?

 

11/22/63

[Jennifer3141]

I tell you, the poster who had a retreat with her DH and spent much of it reading has my envy for the YEAR. Wow. That sounds so good!!!

 

I read 200 pages of Devil in the White City today and I cannot put it down. You can feel the storms brewing and am I glad I didn't live in Chicago in the 1890s.

[TN Mama]

My start to the 2012 year has been a bit rocky, so I haven't posted or read any of the book threads, but I have been reading.

 

Week 1: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool

Week 2: Room by Emma Donoghue

Week 3: The Pawn by Steven James

 

Had to leave town suddenly and didn't take any books with me! When it turned out to be a 2 1/2 week trip instead of 4 days, I was glad I had grabbed the Kindle. Checked out Moon Over Manifest from the library. First ebook from the library and I loved the ease. I found the book to be beautifully written and a great story. It's one my daughter received as a gift, so I look forward to hearing her perspective.

 

Room I read for my book club (bought the ebook). At first I was certain I would not be able to read it. Reading from a 5 year old's point of view and a skewed point of view, at that, was difficult. But I ended up really enjoying the book. I was hoping for more at the end.

 

The Pawn was one a friend had recommended and when I looked at it on Amazon, it happened to be a free download. The writing style isn't my favorite, but I am intrigued by the story line. I am close to finishing - will by day's end.

[Abeille]

I'm chiming in late this week - been too busy reading to keep up with this thread! My DH was out of town all week, so I had lots of time to read. This week I read:

 

3. The Sisters Brothers

4. What Angels Fear

5. When Gods Die

6. Why Mermaids Sing

7. Double Dexter

 

Whew! Many of these titles were recommendations from posters here, so thanks to all of you for sharing your thoughts on these books. My comments can be found in my Pinterest board fro 2012 Reads. I'm currently reading Mortal Coils, Skippy Dies: A Novel (not really feeling this one yet), and The False Friend (need to finish this ASAP before my library loan expires). This thread has helped me make reading more of a priority in my daily life. It's easy to lose so much time online doing not much of anything - having a weekly incentive to read has helped me spend my time more productively.

[Robin M]

Link to Week 4

Please continue conversation in new thread