Book a Week in 2013 - week forty

[Jane in NC]

 

I also finished A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. Even though this is not YA (at least it's not shelved that way at my library), it just feels like a YA book to me in the way in which the story is told, the typesetting, the illustrations, etc.... To my mind, it is YA &, as such, is a relatively fun, slightly spooky/creepy book to read in October. It might be a great choice for YA fans who want to dip a toe into the spooky/creepy arena but who don't yet want to touch 'horror'. (Of course, things like Grimms' Fairy Tales are way more bone-chilling than anything this book has to offer.) The first half of the book moves a little more slowly (& perhaps it seems that way because you, the reader, are not fully clued-in as to what is really going on... things are slowly introduced in a circumspect manner), but the second half picks up the pace quite nicely. Overall, I'd deem it a quite light, relatively fun read for October -- maybe an October version of a pool or beach read, if that makes sense.

 

Zelazny is one of my husband's favorite authors. In fact he is rereading A Night in the Lonesome October (first edition with a protected dust jacket) for the millionth time.

 

I stopped by a library book sale yesterday. For my husband I purchased Christopher Buckley's dark comedy They Eat Puppies Don't They?  For my son there is a small stack of archaeological and history volumes while I picked up a couple of craft books for myself.  Eliana had recommended Scoop when I asked what Evelyn Waugh book should I read after Brideshead.  Well I scooped up a copy of that one too.

 

Library book sales are the greatest thing ever. 

 

[Onceuponatime]

Currently reading, and enjoying, The Clockwork Universe by Edward Dolnick.

 

I am getting a lot out of the science biography/history narrative genre lately. Do you have any authors to recommend besides Dolnick and Sobel?

[Jane in NC]

Currently reading, and enjoying, The Clockwork Universe by Edward Dolnick.

 

I am getting a lot out of the science biography/history narrative genre lately. Do you have any authors to recommend besides Dolnick and Sobel?

 

The Clockwork Universe looks fascinating!

 

You might want to look at books by James Gleick.

[Stacia]

Zelazny is one of my husband's favorite authors. In fact he is rereading A Night in the Lonesome October (first edition with a protected dust jacket) for the millionth time.

 

I stopped by a library book sale yesterday. For my husband I purchased Christopher Buckley's dark comedy They Eat Puppies Don't They? 

 

 

 

This was my first Zelazny book & I can see how it would be a fun one to read each October.

 

I keep seeing the Buckley book at my library & want to read it. Please let me know your dh's review once he reads it.

 

 

Currently reading, and enjoying, The Clockwork Universe by Edward Dolnick.

 

I am getting a lot out of the science biography/history narrative genre lately. Do you have any authors to recommend besides Dolnick and Sobel?

 

 

Some you might enjoy...

"Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach

"Visit Sunny Chernobyl" by Andrew Blackwell

"Fatu-Hiva" by Thor Heyerdahl

"Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford

"Into Africa" by Martin Dugard

 

An author to check out is Tony Horwitz.

 

 

I have shifted my focus to finishing The Historian. It is a Kindle library book which will be snatched on the 5th. It is going really slow. I am not sure that I have ever read a 700 page book on the kindle before. It is a bit disconcerting to only increase my percent finished by one or two percent when I have actually had a fairly long reading session!Thank you for the interesting lists last night. I spent awhile looking. Much prefer the spooky characters.The posts about that poor little fish are hilarious. Dd watched the youtube and proclaimed it obvious -- narrative ends so the little fish must be dead. A strange choice for little ones in her opinion. :lol:

  

 

The Historian is worth it, imo.

 

Lol about your dd's conclusion. Ds had the same idea.

 

I've been reading, just not posting but I do keep track on Goodreads.

Recently been enjoying Angus Donald's Outlaw Chronicles.  A very different take on the legends of Robin Hood.

On Book 3, King's Man.

You guys have sure been having fun in this thread this week!

Good to see you again, Lizzie.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

.

[Onceuponatime]

The Clockwork Universe looks fascinating!

 

You might want to look at books by James Gleick.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Some you might enjoy...

"Packing for Mars" by Mary Roach

"Visit Sunny Chernobyl" by Andrew Blackwell

"Fatu-Hiva" by Thor Heyerdahl

"Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford

"Into Africa" by Martin Dugard

 

An author to check out is Tony Horwitz.

 

   

 

 

 

Thanks to you both for the suggestions. Off to check my library catalog.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

. 

 

[Stacia]

Flavorwire has a couple of great posts (of course):

 

25 Independent Presses (I need to spend some time looking through these; I have a feeling I may be spending more $; knew about a few of these but there are lots of cool sounding ones on the list that I've never heard of):

http://flavorwire.com/417838/25-independent-presses-that-prove-this-is-the-golden-age-of-indie-publishing/view-all/

Love the link for Black Balloon Publishing, whose tag line is "We champion the weird, the unwieldy, and the unclassifiable." Sounds like a publishing company that will warm the cockles of my (non-fish) heart. Apparently they publish a new series that will provide up-to-date, snarky commentary on classics... commentary provided by Clementine the Hedgehog. :laugh:

 

I think I need to buy a lottery ticket & really hope I win because I have the feeling my "I want it & must have it" book list will be growing substantially. :thumbup1:

 

10 Must-Read Books for October:

flavorwire.com/417697/10-must-read-books-for-october/   

 

(Is anyone else having trouble w/ pasting links in??? Or, is the board cutting me off for fish-shaming???)

[Onceuponatime]

Second vote for Tony Horwitz (history) and Mary Roach (science).  Love them both.  In fact, I've got Mary Roach's Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife here for my October Spooky nonfiction read. 

 

Also for straight-up history, Nathaniel Philbrick is a favorite.  I saw in his author newsletter that Ron Howard has bought the rights for Philbrick's In The Heart of the Sea (the true story of the whaleship Essex on which Moby Dick is based).  I've talked that book up before but now we all need to read it before Hollywood takes it over. 

 

I just put Spook on reserve.

[Jane in NC]

I just put Spook on reserve.

 

Mary Roach's Gulp is in my stack.  Stiff is probably her best known work.

 

[Mom-ninja.]

Stacia, I had no idea there was a third book coming out for the Bridget Jones series. I will not be reading that one. I will let her live happily ever after with Mark Darcy in my head forever thank-you-very-much.

[Kareni]

 Or, is the board cutting me off for fish-shaming???)

 

It's likely.

 

 

And, who'd have guessed it?, some visuals for you --

 

Fish Shaming One

 

Fish Shaming Two

 

Regards,

Kareni

[mumto2]

I need to read the Dexter books. I noticed them awhile ago but hadn't had time to try one yet. Your reviews have moved them up my wish list by quite a bit. So there is an audience.....The show is a favorite. Dh hates it. I am currently watching season 4.

 

:lol: no fish harmed...

 

Instead, I switched over to Jeff Lindsay's Dexter's Final Cut, the last (?) of the Dexter books on which the Showtime series is based.  I know there is not a large audience for serial killers here at WTM, but I am enjoying this book.  Lindsay's dark snarky humor is particularly appealing to me right now for some reason or other.

 

I am feeling very restless and wanting a really, really good book to read.  It seems like a long time since I've had an unputdownable, iykwim.

 

(disclaimer: no fish were harmed in the writing of this post)

[mumto2]

Stacia -- The Historian is worth it. It is a reread for me and I love it.

[Stacia]

Mary Roach's Gulp is in my stack.  Stiff is probably her best known work.

 

My mom read Stiff years ago. She was reading it while we were on a trip together. So, during one day, she was telling me that I would really like the book. She couldn't sleep that night & stayed up reading. The next morning, she told me not to read the book because there was something in there that would really disturb me. I asked what & she wouldn't say, just said she knew it would upset me. (It didn't bother her, but it must be something that she specifically knows would bug me????) Anyway, I figure mom knows best in this case... and I've never read it. (I am slightly curious, but it's really hard to unread things you wish you wouldn't have read, so I figure she knows me well & has good reason for her warning.)

 

Stacia, I had no idea there was a third book coming out for the Bridget Jones series. I will not be reading that one. I will let her live happily ever after with Mark Darcy in my head forever thank-you-very-much.

 

I'm w/ you (even though I've never read those books). Uh. I'm still ticked that she would kill off Mark.

 

It's likely.

 

 

And, who'd have guessed it?, some visuals for you --

 

Fish Shaming One

 

Fish Shaming Two

 

I was almost afraid to click those links. :lol:

 

Stacia -- The Historian is worth it. It is a reread for me and I love it.

 

:thumbup1:

[Robin M]

R.I.P. Tom Clancy. 

 

"Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away."

 

Makes me want to read Hunt for Red October again.

[Stacia]

Well, I'm back on the high seas (looking for fish)....

 

;)

 

Actually, I am back in the novel world of seafaring, having started Jules Verne's continuation of Edgar Allan Poe's Pym story. I'm reading a free Kindle version: Le Sphinx de Glaces (it's in English, even if the title is not) -- The Sphinx of the Ice Fields or An Antarctic Mystery is usually how the title is listed in English.

 

I'm not used to reading using the Kindle software, but I think I'm about 1/4 of the way through & I'm really enjoying it. So far, Jane, I think it's one you would like too. (Nothing scary... at least not yet.) Wikipedia description of the book.

[Stacia]

R.I.P. Tom Clancy. 

 

"Nothing is as real as a dream. The world can change around you, but your dream will not. Responsibilities need not erase it. Duties need not obscure it. Because the dream is within you, no one can take it away."

 

Makes me want to read Hunt for Red October again.

 

That's too bad. He wasn't old. My dad is a big fan of his books. I haven't ever read his books (but have seen some of the movies based off his books.)

[ErinE]

I set aside Michael Pollan's A Place of My Own. It was much too introspective and I have difficulty reading about wealthy people searching for themselves (I'm looking at you, Elizabeth Gilbert). I like Pollan's Omnivore books, but this was not the book for me.

 

I found the Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang while browsing the library's e-book catalog. I went on a World War II binge a few years ago, and I consumed books at a blazing pace. Having read Unbroken, Ghost Soldiers, and other similar books set in the Pacific theater, I thought I would be prepared for the disturbing contents of this book. I was utterly and completely wrong. I had to skim entire sections, because the bare bones description of the atrocities was so horrifying. The book is told in four parts: the Japanese, the Chinese, the Westerners offering sanctuary in Nanking, and the WWII aftermath. However upsetting the book was, the author also analyzes the reasons for the "silence" around the torture inflicted on the Chinese people. It was a good book, but don't read it if you are bothered by violence, particularly of the historical sort.

 

I also finished The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster. I had read Such a Pretty Fat and Bitter is the New Black. Martha made me laugh multiple times, to the point of crying at one scene. Excellent light read although there is story line around her pet's illness that was quite sad.

 

I re-read Justin Cronin's The Passage and The Twelve. I highly recommend these books, especially for October spooky reads. Cronin is a professor of literature at Rice University and his writing skill shows in these fantastic books. The first time I read The Passage, I immediately began reading it again upon completion if that tells you anything about how much I enjoyed the book.

 

Finally, I read Stephen King's Rose Madder again. In a prior thread, someone had mentioned this was one of his more disturbing books.

 

I'm in the mood for spooky reads so I'll check out the link.

[Robin M]

Flavorwire has a couple of great posts (of course):

 

25 Independent Presses (I need to spend some time looking through these; I have a feeling I may be spending more $; knew about a few of these but there are lots of cool sounding ones on the list that I've never heard of):

http://flavorwire.com/417838/25-independent-presses-that-prove-this-is-the-golden-age-of-indie-publishing/view-all/

Love the link for Black Balloon Publishing, whose tag line is "We champion the weird, the unwieldy, and the unclassifiable." Sounds like a publishing company that will warm the cockles of my (non-fish) heart. Apparently they publish a new series that will provide up-to-date, snarky commentary on classics... commentary provided by Clementine the Hedgehog. :laugh:

 

I think I need to buy a lottery ticket & really hope I win because I have the feeling my "I want it & must have it" book list will be growing substantially. :thumbup1:

 

10 Must-Read Books for October:

flavorwire.com/417697/10-must-read-books-for-october/   

 

(Is anyone else having trouble w/ pasting links in??? Or, is the board cutting me off for fish-shaming???)

 

Thanks Stacia!   Having fun perusing the different independent presses and coming across some interesting titles and covers. Two from Akashic press that I've added to my wishlist so far.

 

 

 

And some rather interesting online chap books on Ugly Duckling Press. 

 

 

Getting lost in the interwebz again. Back to browsing. :)

[Mom-ninja.]

I also finished The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster. I had read Such a Pretty Fat and Bitter is the New Black. Martha made me laugh multiple times, to the point of crying at one scene. Excellent light read although there is story line around her pet's illness that was quite sad.

 

Yeah, I wish I'd known this before I started it. I mean, really, what are the odds of picking up a book that has a story line of a dog with cancer at the exact same time that my dog is dying of cancer? :glare:

 

I need to find me a Wodehouse. I need him right now.

[ErinE]

Yeah, I wish I'd known this before I started it. I mean, really, what are the odds of picking up a book that has a story line of a dog with cancer at the exact same time that my dog is dying of cancer? :glare:

 

I need to find me a Wodehouse. I need him right now.

I'm so sorry. It is so difficult when we lose someone we love.

[Stacia]

I know Banned Books Week is over for this year (though censorship is, unfortunately, an issue that never dies), but I loved this article: Famous Authors' Funniest Responses to Their Books Being Banned 

[Kareni]

I know Banned Books Week is over for this year (though censorship is, unfortunately, an issue that never dies), but I loved this article: Famous Authors' Funniest Responses to Their Books Being Banned

 

I enjoyed it, too, so thanks for posting it, Stacia.

 

I'll assume you noticed the fish mention in the last sentence?

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Onceuponatime]

I know Banned Books Week is over for this year (though censorship is, unfortunately, an issue that never dies), but I loved this article: Famous Authors' Funniest Responses to Their Books Being Banned

 

 

I adored Ray Bradbury's response. What a hoot!

[Jane in NC]

I adored Ray Bradbury's response. What a hoot!

 

That and Vonnegut calling himself "an old poop".

[LNC]

I am reading the Outlander series, on Dragonfly in Amber. I read Outlander years ago and didn't like it. I reread it knowing where to skim or skip. I like Dragonfly in Amber a lot better and want to go ahead and finish. There aren't a lot of books set in mid south Colonial America. Any other ideas?

 

I worked on our family tree and we are studying that time period, so I am really fascinated. I can't wait until they get to NC. :)

[mlbuchina]

I am reading the Outlander series, on Dragonfly in Amber. I read Outlander years ago and didn't like it. I reread it knowing where to skim or skip. I like Dragonfly in Amber a lot better and want to go ahead and finish. There aren't a lot of books set in mid south Colonial America. Any other ideas?

 

I worked on our family tree and we are studying that time period, so I am really fascinated. I can't wait until they get to NC. :)

 

I know the rest of the Outlander series takes you up to the Revolutionary War.  I can't think of anything else right now, so hopefully the rest of the ladies can chime in with some good suggestions.

[Stacia]

Since we've recently discussed kids' books, I figure you gals will get a laugh out of today's teefury selections. I'm looking at those of you who don't like The Giving Tree or who aren't enamored with Where the Sidewalk Ends. ;-)

 

Teefury.com

 

Lol!

[Stacia]

I enjoyed it, too, so thanks for posting it, Stacia.

 

I'll assume you noticed the fish mention in the last sentence?

 

Regards,

Kareni

Actually, no, I hadn't even noticed that. Lol.

[JennW in SoCal]

Thanks to Flavorwire, here are more enticements for book related travel...

 

30 Excellent Bookstore Windows Around the World

 

My ds visited that bookstore in Reykjavik.  His souvenir from the shop is a "really old" book of Icelandic poetry.  Old to him apparently is 1946!

[aggieamy]

Yeah, I wish I'd known this before I started it. I mean, really, what are the odds of picking up a book that has a story line of a dog with cancer at the exact same time that my dog is dying of cancer? :glare:

 

I need to find me a Wodehouse. I need him right now.

 

((HUGS)) Wodehouse is a remarkably good cure for sadness.

 

Thanks to Flavorwire, here are more enticements for book related travel...

 

30 Excellent Bookstore Windows Around the World

 

My ds visited that bookstore in Reykjavik.  His souvenir from the shop is a "really old" book of Icelandic poetry.  Old to him apparently is 1946!

 

Sigh.  If only I was independently wealthy ... I would spend all my time going around visiting wonderful places and reading wonderful books.  Either that or I would become a detective like Lord Peter.  :)

[Stacia]

In case anyone is interested, it looks like there's a free Kindle version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Don't know if it's usually free or not (I used the library copy myself). And, Jules Verne's follow-up Le Sphinx de Glaces (in English) is also a free Kindle download.

 

So far, I'm very impressed w/ Verne's 'sequel' to Poe's book; Verne has really taken all of the odd &/or hanging details from Poe's book & woven them so well into his own story -- so much so that I'd say these two books need to be read together.

[Stacia]

Thanks to Flavorwire, here are more enticements for book related travel...

 

30 Excellent Bookstore Windows Around the World

 

My ds visited that bookstore in Reykjavik.  His souvenir from the shop is a "really old" book of Icelandic poetry.  Old to him apparently is 1946!

 

:001_wub:

[Violet Crown]

33. Gert Ledig, The Stalin Front.

 

This was one of the NYRB books on sale to which I (and then dh, with a little gentle nudging) was alerted by a Certain Someone on this board, who apparently just likes to see people spend money on books. ;) It's a war novel, quite grisly, with light gallows humor, set at the German-Russian front in the Second World War. As a nod, I presume, to the dehumanizing nature of combat, few characters have names, being instead referred to as "the Sergeant" or "the NCO."

 

Don't read it over breakfast. But very good.

 

Catching up from behind, I decided Genet wasn't good enough for banned books, and ordered Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I'm not interested in the "why on earth would someone challenge that?" kind of book; I want my book good and banned, and put up on some high shelf away from the kids when I'm done. Alas, when dh went to check out a copy from the campus library, all the copies (a dozen English translations purportedly available) were missing, checked out, or theoretically but not actually on the shelf. Someone must have assigned it this semester; a drawback to a huge university town. (Compensated for by the appearance at the end of each semester of dozens of copies of classic literature on clearance at the main Half Price. Beware of highlighting.)

 

Still mostly reading Emerson. The Yankee neo-Romanticism that was the Transcendentalist movement wears thin after a while; but "Self-Reliance" and "The Over-Soul" were (predictably) interesting, even personally challenging.

 

Also reading Burton's original Arabian Nights. Oh my. I'll shelve it away from the fairy tales, nearer to Apuleius than to Grimm.

[Violet Crown]

I know Banned Books Week is over for this year (though censorship is, unfortunately, an issue that never dies), but I loved this article: Famous Authors' Funniest Responses to Their Books Being Banned

One fun bit of trivia from Five Hundred Years of Printing, which I read earlier this year, was that when the Index (the ill-advised list of books Catholics were prohibited from reading without ecclesial permission) was established, almost immediately writers and publishers started angling to get their books listed, as it made sales go up so much.

[Stacia]

There aren't a lot of books set in mid south Colonial America. Any other ideas?

I worked on our family tree and we are studying that time period, so I am really fascinated. I can't wait until they get to NC. :)

  

 

Well, maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but I'd recommend "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing" by M.T. Anderson. I'd link it for you but I'm on a touch screen right now, plus I'm having oodles of board hang-ups & really slow loading issues.

 

33. Gert Ledig, The Stalin Front.

This was one of the NYRB books on sale to which I (and then dh, with a little gentle nudging) was alerted by a Certain Someone on this board, who apparently just likes to see people spend money on books. ;)

 

...

 

Catching up from behind, I decided Genet wasn't good enough for banned books, and ordered Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. I'm not interested in the "why on earth would someone challenge that?" kind of book; I want my book good and banned, and put up on some high shelf away from the kids when I'm done. Alas, when dh went to check out a copy from the campus library, all the copies (a dozen English translations purportedly available) were missing, checked out, or theoretically but not actually on the shelf. Someone must have assigned it this semester; a drawback to a huge university town. (Compensated for by the appearance at the end of each semester of dozens of copies of classic literature on clearance at the main Half Price. Beware of highlighting.)

 

...

 

Also reading Burton's original Arabian Nights. Oh my. I'll shelve it away from the fairy tales, nearer to Apuleius than to Grimm.

Lol. Robin is always pushing us to buy, buy, buy books and accessories! ;-)

 

Oh, I do wish you would read The Master and Margarita. I loved it when I read it last year (and recently scored a like-new copy of the Ginsburg translation at the library sale). I know I could reread it again & again & still not "get" all of it. This is one of those books that would make a great college course. Would love to hear your educated, erudite, & exemplary comments on it, VC.

 

Would love to read Burton's book. Can't wait to hear your comments on that one too. If I had lived in Victorian times, I would have wanted to be Sir Richard Burton.

[mlbuchina]

Is anyone having a problem with Goodreads not keeping their challenge saved? Mine has disappeared, and when I reenter it, click away from the main page, and return, it's gone again. Frustrating.

[Stacia]

Is anyone having a problem with Goodreads not keeping their challenge saved? Mine has disappeared, and when I reenter it, click away from the main page, and return, it's gone again. Frustrating.

 

Hmmm. No, I haven't had that problem. I see your challenge on your page over there (showing 50 books), though.

 

Is it not saving the challenge or not saving the books or...???

[mlbuchina]

Hmmm. No, I haven't had that problem. I see your challenge on your page over there (showing 50 books), though.

 

Is it not saving the challenge or not saving the books or...???

 

It isn't saving the challenge.  Usually on the left hand side there is the challenge with a bar showing how far I've come and the percentage.  Now it just always asks me if I want to do the challenge, and to enter the amount of books.

 

I ended up making a bookshelf for my BaW 2013 books.  I don't know why it won't save the number for the challenge.  Oh, well.

 

 

ETA:  Just checked back over there, and it's back!  Go figure.

[Stacia]

Another place to look for possible Asian books (for the Asia continental challenge) is the Man Asian Literary Prize winners (& nominees). Looks like the 2013 longlist won't be announced until December, but there are past lists to peruse under the MALP Books link.

 

I have read only two of these & want to read more. The two I've read are:

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (Japan): 2011 longlist nominee

Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco (Philippines): 2008 winner

 

Loved both of them & would recommend them.

 

 

[Kareni]

Since we've recently discussed kids' books, I figure you gals will get a laugh out of today's teefury selections. I'm looking at those of you who don't like The Giving Tree or who aren't enamored with Where the Sidewalk Ends. ;-)

 

Teefury.com

A hearty vote here for the The Keeping Tree t-shirt!  Thanks for the chuckle, Stacia.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[ladydusk]

I finally finished Ross King's Leonardo and the Last Supper. I've never been so thankful that 20% of a book was endnotes and bibliography! I did not love this, but learned from reading it, so ... Meh.

[Hoot]

Finished Dearly Devoted Dexter (book 2) yesterday. Started A Walk in the Snark. Planning on starting Dexter in the Dark (book 3) next.

Completed So Far

 

1. Best Friends by Samantha Glen

2. Wesley the Owl by Stacey O'Brien

3. The Gift of Pets: Stories Only a Vet Could Tell by Bruce Coston

4. Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human by Elizabeth Hess

5. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine

6. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch by Alison Arngrim

7. Beowulf by Seamus Heaney

8. The Odyssey by Homer (Fagles translation)

9. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

10. The Year of Learning Dangerously: Adventures in Homeschooling by Quinn Cummings

11. Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

12. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

13. Tales of an African Vet by Dr. Roy Aronson

14. Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

15. The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie

16. Kisses From Katie by Katie Katie Davis

17. Iguanas for Dummies by Melissa Kaplan

18. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

19. Zoo by James Patterson

20. St. Lucy's School for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

21. Russian Tortoises in Captivity by Jerry D. Fife

22. Leopard Geckos for Dummies by Liz Palika

23. The 8th Confession by James Patterson

24. Leopard Geckos: Caring for Your New Pet by Casey Watkins

25. The Ultimate Guide to Leopard Geckos by Phoenix Hayes Simmons

26. 9th Judgement by James Patterson

27. 10th Anniversary by James Patterson

28. 11th Hour by James Patterson

29. 12th of Never by James Patterson

30. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

31. Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea With Ocean Experts by Ellen J. Prager

32. Dolphin Mysteries: Unlocking the Secrets of Communication by Kathleen M. Dudzinski & Toni Frohoff

33. The Greeening by S. Brubaker

34. No Touch Monkey! by Ayun Halliday

35. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

36. Beating Dyspraxia with a Hop, Skip, and a Jump by Geoff Platt

37. Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

38. Traveling With Pomegranates by Sue Monk Kidd and Ann Kidd Taylor

39. The Stranger by Albert Camus

40. Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Shakespeare

41. Shakespeare: The World a Stage by Bill Bryson

42. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

43. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

44. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster

45. Brain Power: Improve Your Mind as You Age by Michael J. Gelb and Kelly Howell

46. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

47. Animal Farm by George Orwell

48. Carrie by Stephen King

49. Deconstructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone

50. The Way Life Works by Mahlon Hoagland

51. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

52. Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

53. Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

[mumto2]

Thanks to Flavorwire, here are more enticements for book related travel...

 

30 Excellent Bookstore Windows Around the World

 

My ds visited that bookstore in Reykjavik.  His souvenir from the shop is a "really old" book of Icelandic poetry.  Old to him apparently is 1946!

 

I thought I would add a bit more "travel" info to the list! I was surprised to see Cromford on the list. Lovely village but a bit out of the way compared to most of the other stores on the list. Somewhat easy to picture a visit to a store in NYC but much harder to imagine one in a somewhat sleepy (popular holiday for walking area--beautiful views) village. The town is a World Heritage Site because of the mill which was the reason for our first visit. Been back for the walks several times. Anyway here is a bit of information about the town. I have visited the store, it is good one! :)

 

http://www.derbyshireuk.net/cromford.html

[mumto2]

FYI on October 7 a Fantasy and Science Fiction course is starting on Coursera from University of Michigan. Stoker's Dracula is one of the books along with several other interesting choices. Dd wants to take it -- she wants to do most of them. :lol:

[Onceuponatime]

I took my 9yo son to the library and happened to see Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick on the shelf. Took it home and devoured it. Now that was magical, a work of art.

[Paisley Hedgehog]

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[mlbuchina]

I took my 9yo son to the library and happened to see Wonder Struck by Brian Selznick on the shelf. Took it home and devoured it. Now that was magical, a work of art.

 

My dd10 LOVED The Invention of Hugo Cabret, so when we saw Wonder Struck at the library she was very excited.  We brought it home, and she ended up not liking it at all.  She was so disappointed.

[Onceuponatime]

My dd10 LOVED The Invention of Hugo Cabret, so when we saw Wonder Struck at the library she was very excited.  We brought it home, and she ended up not liking it at all.  She was so disappointed.

 

Actually, I can see how that would happen. We all have different levels of ability to identify with character's personalities, their emotions, and their experiences.

Since I loved and identified with The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankwieler when I was growing up, this book was fascinating to me. So much more so when I got to the end and saw that the author had that book in mind when he wrote his story. Me being an adult also has something to do with it.

 

I am sure that all of us here interact with the books we read differently, I wouldn't hold it against anyone if they absolutely hated a book I love, because I know that I sometimes grimace at the thought of some of the books others love.