Book a Week in 2012 - Week 42

[Rosie_0801]

I didn't mean to be patronizing. I hate the American tendency to assume that a) everyone on the internet is American or b) everyone around the world must know where all our states and major cities are (frankly, everyone in the US doesn't).

 

I didn't think you were. I only said I roughly knew and I was boasting. :D

[6packofun]

I'm finishing The Third Gate by Lincoln Child so that I can get to a long-awaited book: The Twelve by Justin Cronin!! The Passage was so good and I'm really excited to finally catch up with the characters and that world...

[Storm Bay]

I didn't mean to be patronizing. I hate the American tendency to assume that a) everyone on the internet is American or b) everyone around the world must know where all our states and major cities are (frankly, everyone in the US doesn't).

 

:D Right. Something I've seen having lived in both Canada & the US (okay, and a year in Europe when I was little) is how much ignorance resides on either side of the border about the other, and how many myths abound about each other. eg This is the first year I've met Americans who know that Canada doesn't have a national health care system, and I met two different ones. Okay, it's not a subject that comes up daily, but still.

 

(Canada's healthcare is largely provincial, and in some provinces you even pay a premium, albeit a small one compared to most states.)

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[Stacia]

I finished watching the dvd of Picnic At Hanging Rock. What the heck happened??

 

SPOILERS!! SPOILERS!!

 

I sent you a PM. :001_smile:

[Mom-ninja.]

I finished Mindy Kaling's book. It was fun.

[Stacia]

Told the College Boy about this one. He buys few new books but thought this one might be worth the investment. Let me know if you think so.

 

Visit Sunny Chernobyl sounds intriguing to me, too. I anxiously await an update.

 

I finished Visit Sunny Chernobyl today. (And I made my 11yo ds, computer guru kid, read the section on China where they break-down/recycle electronic components.) It's a thought-provoking book. Blackwell visits & describes the places & people there, but leaves you to draw many of your own conclusions. I typically enjoy travel memoirs, and this book is no exception. It brought me to corners of the globe where I've never been (and most likely will never go); I like & respect that Blackwell visits the places that most people never will. I also like that fact that in spite of environmental devastation, he can see beauty amid the troubles, real people amid the faceless workers/people who work/live in these environments. His overall, final view seems to be along the lines of: the Earth is definitely extremely messed up & has been already; many environmentalists envision Nirvana being Earth w/ few to no humans; Blackwell argues that we humans are of & on the Earth too, we've figured in the damage, & we need to figure in the future of protecting the environment while living & working in it too. Ironically, while finishing his travels for the book, the Japanese tsunami happened (w/ the resulting nuclear issues), making many of his observations very timely & underscoring the impact we humans are having on our environment, both for today, as well as the short- and long-term futures. FYI, even w/ the environmental bent of his topic, this book is very much a travelogue of places & people visited.

 

I think it would be a great read for high schoolers & university-level students. This book can spawn lots of great discussion, debate, & research, imo. (As far as buying, ymmv. I rarely buy books for myself; I get them from the library about 95% of the time. For me, this is fine as a library book. A student might like having a copy for making notes, etc.... If your library has it, I'd suggest checking it out & then deciding if it's the right purchase for you. It is definitely worth reading.)

 

My vote is for "definitely recommended".

 

One was mentioned for sure in the last thread: The Climb by Anatoli Boukreev, ghostwritten by G. Weston De Walt. It's the rebuttal to Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air that I read in September. Actually, my pb copy of Into Thin Air was a later reprint that has an epilogue with Krakauer's rebuttal to Boukreev's rebuttal. LOL. So I already have an idea of what The Climb will be like and how Boukreev will defend himself (and what Krakauer would say about it).

 

The other book is Everest: Mountain Without Mercy which seems to be the print accompaniment to David Breashears's IMAX movie (being filmed at the same time as the disaster). Just because I'm in an Everest sort of mood, I also put the Frontline Storm Over Everest movie in my Netflix queue. Storm Over Everest is Breashear's POV of the whole tragedy which completely, totally has a different take on most of the participants.

 

Thanks for the details!

 

Finished two books this week:

 

# 51 - Ballad of the Whiskey Robber, by Julian Rubenstein. A true story about a Hungarian ice hockey player who robs banks on the side. It was a good read, not my usual thing. Lots of interesting history about Hungary and Romania and what it was like during the transition from communism to capitalism.

 

# 52

 

#51 sounds intriguing. Plus, congrats on reaching #52! :thumbup1:

 

We're in "Octonovemcember" now and things are starting to get hectic.

 

:lol: Love that term. And, I totally know what you mean. It's the same here.

 

I'm going to share that with my brother. He answers phones for the police here and gets people ringing up from the new suburbs to report kangaroos having been on the road. Not sure what they think the police will do about it.

 

Maybe they think the police will 'hop to it'? ;):lol: (I apologize for my horrible pun & request a rim shot, please. :tongue_smilie:)

 

You caught us, the wood chipper would be the true part...well...we own wood chippers anyway.

 

:lol:

 

#112 American Born Chinese (Gene Luen Yang) Graphic novel. National Book Award Finalist in 2006. Michael L. Printz Award in 2007. Amazon.com Best Graphic Novel/Comic of the Year and the Booklist Top Ten Graphic Novel for Youth. These are just a fistful of the awards and accolades heaped on Yang's "ethnic bildungsroman." Superb in every way and highly recommended.

 

Sounds interesting! Will have to look for this one....

Edited October 18, 2012 by Stacia

[ariasmommy]

I finished Visit Sunny Chernobyl today. (And I made my 11yo ds, computer guru kid, read the section on China where they break-down/recycle electronic components.) It's a thought-provoking book. Blackwell visits & describes the places & people there, but leaves you to draw many of your own conclusions. I typically enjoy travel memoirs, and this book is no exception. It brought me to corners of the globe where I've never been (and most likely will never go); I like & respect that Blackwell visits the places that most people never will. I also like that fact that in spite of environmental devastation, he can see beauty amid the troubles, real people amid the faceless workers/people who work/live in these environments. His overall, final view seems to be along the lines of: the Earth is definitely extremely messed up & has been already; many environmentalists envision Nirvana being Earth w/ few to no humans; Blackwell argues that we humans are of & on the Earth too, we've figured in the damage, & we need to figure in the future of protecting the environment while living & working in it too. Ironically, while finishing his travels for the book, the Japanese tsunami happened (w/ the resulting nuclear issues), making many of his observations very timely & underscoring the impact we humans are having on our environment, both for today, as well as the short- and long-term futures. FYI, even w/ the environmental bent of his topic, this book is very much a travelogue of places & people visited.

 

I think it would be a great read for high schoolers & university-level students. This book can spawn lots of great discussion, debate, & research, imo. (As far as buying, ymmv. I rarely buy books for myself; I get them from the library about 95% of the time. For me, this is fine as a library book. A student might like having a copy for making notes, etc.... If your library has it, I'd suggest checking it out & then deciding if it's the right purchase for you. It is definitely worth reading.)

 

My vote is for "definitely recommended".

 

This sounds intriguing - I'm putting it on my to-read list. Thanks for the review!:)

 

I finished #47 last Saturday: The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook version).

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[Stacia]

I finished #68 The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein and have linked my review. I absolutely loved it, but if explicit s*xual imagery offends you, you will want to steer clear of this book. Yowzer :blink:

 

Sounds good. I'm going to have to read this one, I think.

 

Today, I finished John Dies at the End by David Wong. I'd probably give the story itself a 3.5 rating, but I'm bumping the overall score to 4 because some parts are just so absurdly funny.

 

This book is not necessarily for the faint of heart. It seems like a smash-up of teen horror flicks (and all their grossness, from juvenile humor to creeping levels of dread to gory scenes), dark-humor (a la the Coen brothers), with a side of Jon Stewart/David Letterman style commentary & conversation.

 

A fun, gross, creepy horror read -- a kind of :ack2: + :eek: + :001_huh: + :smilielol5: book. Perfect for October. (I agree w/ the Kirkus review of the book, which is what I link above in the book title.)

 

--------------------------

My Goodreads Page

Completed the Europa Challenge Cappuccino Level (at least 6 Europa books: #s 4, 9, 10, 11, 14, 19, & 21 on my list).

Completed Robin's Read a Russian Author in April Challenge (#24 & #26 on my list).

Completed Rosie's Local Reading Challenge (#56 on my list).

 

My rating system: 5 = Love; 4 = Pretty awesome; 3 = Decently good; 2 = Ok; 1 = Don't bother (I shouldn't have any 1s on my list as I would ditch them before finishing)...

 

2012 Books Read:

Books I read January-June 2012

37. Clutter Busting Your Life by Brooks Palmer (3 stars)

38. The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje (5 stars)

39. The Colors of Infamy by Albert Cossery (3 stars)

40. Osa and Martin: For the Love of Adventure by Kelly Enright (3 stars)

 

41. Hexed by Kevin Hearne (4 stars)

42. Soulless by Gail Carriger (3 stars)

43. The Hoarder in You by Dr. Robin Zasio (3 stars)

44. What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (2 stars)

45. The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (4 stars)

46. The Nazi Séance by Arthur J. Magida (2 stars)

47. Phoenix Rising by Pip Ballentine & Tee Morris (3 stars)

48. Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi (5 stars)

49. Thud! by Terry Pratchett (3 stars)

50. Wide Open by Nicola Barker (3 stars)

 

51. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (4 stars)

52. The Merciful Women by Federico Andahazi (3 stars)

53. The Vampyre by John William Polidori (3 stars)

54. Living in a Nutshell by Janet Lee (3 stars)

55. Dracula by Bram Stoker (4 stars)

56. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay (3 stars)

57. Visit Sunny Chernobyl by Andrew Blackwell (4 stars)

58. John Dies at the End by David Wong (4 stars)

Edited October 20, 2012 by Stacia

[Violet Crown]

14. Henry James, The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories

 

I love wallowing in James. And very Halloween-y.

 

Alert: The Penguin edition has a brief introduction in which the surprise ending of all three stories is given away! Now I already knew how The Turn of the Screw ends, but I hadn't read The Pupil or The Third Person before, and didn't appreciate the spoilers.

 

ETA: And now working through Arthur's Britain.

Edited October 21, 2012 by Sharon in Austin

[Robin M]

 

Link to week 43 - please continue conversation in new thread.