Book a Week in 2014 - BW7

[JennW in SoCal]

 

... I have so many conversations I want to continue from last week!  I'll try to bring them over soon (but, wow!  how active we're being!  It's delightful!  ...but hard to keep up with)

 

Yes, delightful but very hard to keep up with!   Eliana, by the way, I hope your dd continues to recover and has a wonderfully uneventful rest of her pregnancy.  

 

I'm not even going to try to dip into any of the conversations at this late hour, so will just post a quick reading update.

 

I've got three books going:

 

Hare with the Amber Eyes, which is truly delightful, but not something that is begging me to pick it up or to linger over it.  I love that the author (won't look for his name now) can write so lucidly and engagingly about art.  But at this rate I may not finish it for the next month or so!!

 

The Surgeon's Mate, the next in the Aubrey/Maturin series.  On audio, and my companion in the car going to and from rehearsals, gigs and the like. (Entering a busy season, so less time for BaW threads and lingering over books but more time in the car to enjoy audio books.)

 

A Rule Against Murder, one of the Inspector Gamache books.  A great bedtime read, though it may keep me up too late as I get into the real whodunnit part of the book.  I actually like that the murder didn't happen til almost 100 pages in -- a very relaxed set up.

[SunnyDays]

Quote of the week (I'm awarding early, I know) goes to Eliana: "... For a trip through hell, it was a very enjoyable read." Somehow that tickled me! :)

 

I spent too much time online last week and didn't read much. That, and The Goldfinch seems very, very long. It's good but moving slowly for me. So, nothing finished.

 

Still reading: The Goldfinch and The Happiness Project

 

I'd like to work on either The Inferno, or On A Winters Night A Traveler, but we will see how I do getting through the above.

[Negin]

I completely understand about not wanting the movies to take away from the experience of the books.  I have seen all of the movies, and just had to keep telling myself that I had to enjoy them in their own right, and try not to compare them too much to the books.  There is quite a bit left out, and some things they changed that I couldn't figure out why, but on the whole I like the movies.  Do not watch them until you have read the whole series, or at least, don't watch a movie of a book you haven't read.

 

I will say, though, as one Snape lover to the next, I think you need to see the movies just to see Alan Rickman play him.  He is sooooo good as Prof. Snape.

 

 

nm

 

[Negin]

I read Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen as part of a Bingo Reading Challenge - "a book published this year" - 3 Stars. I enjoyed this as I do all of her books. It wasn't my favorite, however. I thought that it was a little bit too predictable. Nonetheless, I'm happy that I read it. It was a pleasant escape from the realities of life, which, after all, is what reading should be all about. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay – nothing to write home about

1 Star

Rubbish – waste of my money and time. Few books make it to this level, since I usually give up on them if they’re that bad.

[Pam in CT]

Pam, have you read Gretel Ehrlich's, 'This Cold Heaven'? I have read it twice it was that good. It's an exquisite evocation of the intersection of land and language, light and its absence as well as a fascinating story. I think you might very much enjoy it.

 

I haven't -- I will look for it.  Thank you.

 

Short obituary for Maxine Kumin, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet:

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/maxine-kumin-pulitzer-prize-winning-poet-dies-at-88/2014/02/08/30a6faf0-901d-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

 

Aww... I missed that.  I'm thinking about doing women poets as a 5/5/5 category...

 

 

 

On re-reading, and the call to empathic vulnerability:

 

 

As I've reread books that were powerful for me as a kid or teen, I've been struck by how differently I read them now.  I learn different things, I see different angles... and yes, I see more now, in some ways... but the things I saw then are *there* in the books, and they gave me such insights and richness of experience and imagination. 

 

<snip>

 

I was nodding along, right with you until that last sentence... I guess it comes back the question we were kicking around last week... how much do we (or don't we) need/want a viewpoint that matches our own? 

 

I don't know what I think. 

 

Hypothetically I'm all for universality... but when Stacia asked her question... and I looked, not at what I read, but at what I *love*, the books that have shaped me in the strongest, deepest ways, the books I reread until they fall apart, the ones that are my touchstones... and, without any conscious intent (and without having read most of the books on 'female writers' lists)... my top choices are almost all written by women (the standout exception is, of course, Shakespeare)

 

...it is different for poetry... and drama, actually, but for novels.... the gender disbalance is actually shocking to me..

 

<snip>

 

Our vulnerability is a little scary - especially because it can be so invisible.  ... and so unavoidable (at least for those of us with tech-dependent incomes and/or who live in large cities.)  On the other hand, I think every mode of living contains its own significant vulnerabilities, and how we face (or avoid) the physical and existential vulnerabilities of life is at the core of most theology... and most literature, imho.

 

<snip>

 

Jane Eyre has never been a favorite of mine (I much prefer Anne's books to either Charlotte's or Emily's), but I have found my experience reading it has shifted over the years - as I've gotten older and my reading tastes have broadened a little, I've been able to get more from books that come at the world/the human experience from drastically different angles than I ever could. 

 

...and familiarity with the period or genre or flavor of story or other associations makes such a difference in the accessibility of a work... and in how much I can relax and be open to the story, the world... how many connections I can make, how many other things it is in dialogue with in my head...

 

<snip>

 

isn't that magic?  When a book's journey or message align with our own personal life journeys in such a deep and powerful way...

I know my reading experience is strongly influenced by where my life and heart are at... and by what else I've been reading lately! 

 

...some co-incidences bring out another dimension to a book.. it is as if I've entered a secret portal... or the back of the wardrobe just opened up...

 

 

And I can't *plan* that... I can't finagle it... it is pure serendipity... and grace.

 

<snip>

 

 

I've reread a number of books I didn't care for the first time around... sometimes it is because I've gained more appreciation for that period/genre/style and suspect I'll be in a better place to try again... and sometimes I'm reading other things that are in dialogue with that work and I feel a need to revisit it to help me process the other things I'm reading (and sometimes I don't like whatever it is a single bit more!)

 

Wuthering Heights I seem to reread once a decade - in my teens, my twenties, and my thirties... which might mean I'll feel an urge to pick it up again in the next few years - but I've never *liked* it... and it such an unpleasant headspace to enter into.... but the last two rereads have been fascinating... and *wow* but one could do a whole course on dysfunctional relationships based on this book...

 

Gracious.  Before last week's thread, it had never occurred to me even to do a simple count of the number of male vs. female authors I read... and now here you go introducing an even further refinement, the number of male vs female authors whose work significantly touches me and stays with me over time...  Oy!  Now this will entail pulling out prior year's lists and really assigning the matter some actual thought.  Hmmm.

 

I'm thinking the bolded, above, is perhaps the portal.  Shukriyya's insistence, in last week's thread, that she as a reader received certain works in specifically female terms, left me mulling and spinning and casting about for examples in my own reading... and I think this business of vulnerabilities, and how we gloss over or face or avoid them, may be important for me to sort out.

 

 

 

 

That seems like an odd choice.  Kabbalah is definitely intended for the cognoscenti (which certainly doesn't include me!)... and even Kabbalah derived insights make more sense when one has a broader context.

 

 

Yes, weird.  I was traveling during the book selection process last year, and did not weigh in... we aren't meeting to discuss it for a few weeks yet.  I'm curious to see how others in the group received it!

[Onceuponatime]

I've been in slow reading mode over the last few days from watching both the olympics and my 8yo grandson. I was tickled when he was absolutely absorbed by the snowboarding, which he had never seen before. Enthralled, he turned to me and said, "Can I do that?"  Of course I said, "Sure." I hope his mother is okay with that. :laugh:

 

I'm still working on The Dante Game and I'm now in the 5th circle of Hell. :huh:

[Tress]

I am still reading   Howards End is on the Landing  by Susan Hill.   This is a book about books and reading.  I have read better books that fall into this genre but there were bits and pieces  that I enjoyed.  It is interesting to read of her take on some of the books that she has read and their authors.

 

Any other books-about-books that you can recommend? :bigear:  I looooove books about books.

 

[Tress]

King's Peace by Jo Walton: 1st volume in a Arthurian inspired fantasy duology.  These are intelligent, fascinating, but rather grim reimaginings... but not grim in a GRR Martin way, grim in a history of hard times way... and in the way anything Arthurian that is true to its source material needs to be...   ...but this world has such depth and such a brilliant set-up... that then lets theological, political, cultural, and personal consequences flow from it... I'm halfway through the second one...

 

That's good to hear! After reading What Makes This Book So Great by Jo Walton, I wanted to read a novel by her, and King's Peace (and the sequel) were the only ones my library had. Now I'm even more looking forward to it.

 

[Paisley Hedgehog]

. 

 

[Jane in NC]

Thank you for this, Jane.  Your words have caused me to think.  I did not like Jane Eyre when I read it  but I first read it  when I was  41.  I was far from the teen years so I cannot blame it on that  but I was young as far as reading was concerned.  Up until that time I had been reading only pure fluff, Jane Eyre was my first taste of a classic.  it was a whole different world than what I was used to.  Since then, my literary tastes have changed drastically so maybe I need to retry Jane.  Maybe I will like it now that I am bigger. :laugh:

 

 

There are ages and stages in our reading lives, times when reading fluff is comforting or fun.  Others times when it nothing but annoying...

 

Egads, Jane, so much food for thought, here...

 

On reading the classics before we're mature enough to "get them" vs. returning to them:

 

 

This is why I so believe in re-reading, despite the existential anxiety I have about "so many books, so little time"... it helps me to see and understand how much, and in what directions, I've changed... I tend myself to go back over (and in some cases over and over and over) to the books that did speak to me in prior lives (some of them are still powerful albeit in different ways; others less so).  I do less of your Jane Eyre experience (going back to a book that didn't do much for me the first time around).  I'm curious: what moved you to pick it up again?  and inspired, as well.  Maybe I should try Moby Dick again...

 

On textiles "work": 

 

 

Pam, what led me to reread Jane Eyre was receiving a Christmas gift of two of the new Penguin hardcovers from my niece with a note thanking me for introducing her to the Bronte sisters. This rather baffled me since I don't recall either introducing her to the Brontes or having any particular fondness for any of the sisters.  But it is true that I have showered this niece with books and ideas.  If anything the gift has inspired me to return to the Brontes with new (well, old) eyes.

 

The Penguin hardcovers are very pretty, by the way.

 

 

 

Ahem. I did not read Moby Dick until after I assigned it to my son. He finished it and said, "Mom, this is the best book I have ever read."  So I borrowed the luscious University of California edition from the library and read much of the book while sitting on a rocky Cape Cod beach where whaling vessels formerly passed by.

 

 

 

By the way, The Boy was not wrong.  It is a wonderful book!

 

I snipped your post, Pam, for brevity.  About women's work:  Yes, the way it has been undervalued annoys the heck out of me.  But you know it is not just women, it was often the work of the Common Man that was ignored.  PieceWork magazine in its January/February 2014 issue had a nice article on some underwater archaeology work done in Poland on a British ship that sank in the Baltic.  One of the commercially made caps that they rescued was a traditional Yorkshire cap:

 

 

The fringe keeps moisture from dripping into the eyes in intense fog.  But how much notice was given to a sailor's cap in time's past? I am champion not only of women's work but also of the everyday worker who keeps the world afloat.

 

 

The Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade 1500-1800:  Jane, I think you might really enjoy this!  (And it is thanks to you that I found this book & requested that my library purchase it - I've been trying to find entry-points for myself to textiles).  Half the book is essays from a variety of experts about aspects of the worldwide textile trade, the other half is a thoroughly annotated catalogue of the exhibition the Met did on this topic.   The essays and annotations are fascinating (I'm familiar with many of the regions and their history, but not from this angle at all) and the textiles themselves are amazing. 

 

 

Henrietta Sees it Through by Joyce Dennys: The second volume of 'Henrietta' letters giving the perspective of a small town doctor's wife near the end of WWII in England.  These are humorous little pieces, though I found the first volume more amusing than the second.

 

 

... I have so many conversations I want to continue from last week!  I'll try to bring them over soon (but, wow!  how active we're being!  It's delightful!  ...but hard to keep up with)

 

Of course my library does not have The Interwoven Globe but I suspect I can get my hands on a copy.  (My sister in law buys all of the Met books.)  Thanks!

 

I can't remember if I mentioned reading one of the Henrietta books before.  I really prefer E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady series.  Have you read them?

 

I just looked up the definitions of heaths and moors in order to confirm my observations and they are the same except a moor is a heath on rolling land. Strolls on moors are frequently hard work. ;) Here is a link so you can see what I mean to Longshaw Estate which hooks on to the Peak District National Park. Several outdoor scenes for the movie take place where the two intersect. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw/things-to-see-and-do/

Thank you for the link. What wonderful daydreams for a cold, gray week ahead!

[Jane Elliot]

 I looooove books about books.

 

 

Yes! And threads about books, too!

 

I haven't been able to post here for a while. (Life.) I have been reading though.

 

Finished:

 

4. Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers - enjoyable, but I kept wondering how it made its way onto the WTM 8th grade reading list.

 

5. The Living Page: Keeping Notebooks with Charlotte Mason by Laurie Bestvater - Beautiful in every way! It's been a long time since I've hoped so much that a book would change me. I want my homeschool to look like this.

 

6. Gold Cord: The Story of a Fellowship by Amy Carmichael - Very worthwhile. This book was given me by dil's sweet mother. Here's a bookish quote from it:

 

"It is the eternal in books that makes them our friends and teachers--the paragraphs, the verses, that grip memory and ring down the years like bells, or call like bugles, or sound like trumpets; words of vision that open to us undying things and fix our eyes on them. We are not here, they tell us, for trivial purposes."

 

Finishing those three books cleared the deck for me. I've started a few new ones but haven't decided which I'll commit to yet.

[Luckymama]

Sympathy and advice please------my beloved Kindle Keyboard will no longer charge. I tried two different cables with no luck. I plugged it into the wall charger and into the laptop. And to make sure, I repeated everything with dd's Kindle. Hers charged :(

 

I am so sad!

 

So now I need advice. Should I get the regular Kindle or the Paperwhite? I read indoors and outdoors. I've been using a cover w integrated light to read in lowlight situations. I do NOT like reading books on my ipad and only do so when the library ebook is only available in the ePub format.

 

Any cover to recommend? I like a sturdy cover so I can throw the kindle into whatever bag (especially when travelling) without worry.

 

Dh says to get whatever I want. He's no help :lol:

[mlbuchina]

Sympathy and advice please------my beloved Kindle Keyboard will no longer charge. I tried two different cables with no luck. I plugged it into the wall charger and into the laptop. And to make sure, I repeated everything with dd's Kindle. Hers charged :(

 

I am so sad!

 

So now I need advice. Should I get the regular Kindle or the Paperwhite? I read indoors and outdoors. I've been using a cover w integrated light to read in lowlight situations. I do NOT like reading books on my ipad and only do so when the library ebook is only available in the ePub format.

 

Any cover to recommend? I like a sturdy cover so I can throw the kindle into whatever bag (especially when travelling) without worry.

 

Dh says to get whatever I want. He's no help :lol:

 

First, contact Amazon customer service and see what they say about the charging problem.  I have only ever had great customer service from them, so I would expect you to receive it, too.

 

As to the Paperwhite vs. regular...  I'm not sure.  I have a regular Kindle (the cheapest one), and I love it.  I have been thinking about getting my dd10 a Kindle, and have been leaning towards the Paperwhite for the sole purpose of it already having the ability to be read in low/no light situations.  I think I would say, if you are getting a new Kindle, I would go with the Paperwhite.  My plan is to go by BestBuy and give it a really good look.  Really compare it to my Kindle.  If there is a BestBuy near you, you could do the same.

 

All the covers I have are by Verso, and they are very sturdy.  I toss my Kindle and tablet into bags and such and don't worry about them.

[JadeOrchidSong]

Harry Potter 7.

I just finished Seven Harrys.

My heart still hope Snape turns out good and Dumbledore is not dead.

Come on, Snape!

[shukriyya]

Sympathy and advice please------my beloved Kindle Keyboard will no longer charge. I tried two different cables with no luck. I plugged it into the wall charger and into the laptop. And to make sure, I repeated everything with dd's Kindle. Hers charged :(

 

I am so sad!

 

So now I need advice. Should I get the regular Kindle or the Paperwhite? I read indoors and outdoors. I've been using a cover w integrated light to read in lowlight situations. I do NOT like reading books on my ipad and only do so when the library ebook is only available in the ePub format.

 

Any cover to recommend? I like a sturdy cover so I can throw the kindle into whatever bag (especially when travelling) without worry.

 

Dh says to get whatever I want. He's no help :lol:

 

Sympathy first...so sorry you are kindleless. Advice...I've got a PW and *love* it but I've not had anything else before that so I don't have much context for advising you though like you, reading on the ipad,...nope. As for a cover I got the Amazon PW leather cover and it's great. Turns my PW off and on when I open or close it plus it's sturdy, slim, doesn't interfere with the PW's streamlined look and most importantly, it's pretty :D

 

[shukriyya]

And now a little meditation to set us adrift into the meandering river of our week...

Bedside Reading

The too-soon hour
you emptied by waking

fills with the book you earlier
set aside to fall asleep.

What harm in a few more pages
read long before dawn?

On this lamplight lake, held
in the boat of another's making,

you float--lifted, rocked, stolen away.
Buoyed along in a writer's craft.

by Paulann Petersen

[Jane Elliot]

Sympathy and advice please------my beloved Kindle Keyboard will no longer charge. I tried two different cables with no luck. I plugged it into the wall charger and into the laptop. And to make sure, I repeated everything with dd's Kindle. Hers charged :(

 

I am so sad!

 

So now I need advice. Should I get the regular Kindle or the Paperwhite? I read indoors and outdoors. I've been using a cover w integrated light to read in lowlight situations. I do NOT like reading books on my ipad and only do so when the library ebook is only available in the ePub format.

 

Any cover to recommend? I like a sturdy cover so I can throw the kindle into whatever bag (especially when travelling) without worry.

 

Dh says to get whatever I want. He's no help :lol:

 

You do have my sympathies. I loved my Kindle Keyboard which I had for a couple years, but dh thought I'd love the Paperwhite more, so he surprised me with one last summer. I was skeptical. (I generally don't get along with touch screens.) The Paperwhite is wonderful though. No more book light to deal with! I have vision issues (floaters that significantly distort my vision) and the Kindle restored my love for reading by making it easier on my eyes. (I would never be able to read on an ipad either.) I didn't know if the Paperwhite would be as easy on my eyes as my old Kindle, but it's even easier, actually a lot easier because you can adjust the level of light. This is the cover I have in ink blue. It's sturdy.

[mommymilkies]

I've just read the one book about textiles (The Interwoven Globe - in my summary above), and I'm already hooked (sorry, not trying to be punny).  I have these two on my list (have you read either of them?):  Women's Work: The First 20, 000 Years - Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times  and Textiles: The Art of Mankind.

 

You won my heart!  I love reading about textiles.  My oldest daughter is working on altering her costume for the American Revolution reenactment in a few months. <3

[Kareni]

Any other books-about-books that you can recommend? :bigear:  I looooove books about books.

 

 

So do I.

 

One of my favorite books about children's books is the now out of print

Reading for the Love of It: Best Books for Young Readers by Michele Landsberg.

 

And, as a side note given the recent discussion of feminism, it was interesting to see that the author published this book a few years ago.  (No, I haven't read it.)

Writing the Revolution

 

"A collection of journalist Michele Landsberg's Toronto Star columns, where she was a regular columnist for more than twenty-five years between 1978 and 2005. Michele has chosen her favourite and most relevant columns, using them as a lens to reflect on the the second wave of feminism and the issues facing women then and now. An icon of the feminist movement and a hero to many, through her writing and activism Michele played an important role in fighting for the rights of women, children, and the disenfranchised. Her insights are as powerful for the generation of women who experienced the second wave as for the rising tide of young feminists taking action today."

 

 

One book I currently have checked out of the library but have yet to dip into is this:

 

The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You by Susan Elderkin and Ella Berthoud

 

"A novel is a story transmitted from the novelist to the reader. It offers distraction, entertainment, and an opportunity to unwind or focus. But it can also be something more powerful—a way to learn about how to live. Read at the right moment in your life, a novel can—quite literally—change it.

 

The Novel Cure is a reminder of that power. To create this apothecary, the authors have trawled two thousand years of literature for novels that effectively promote happiness, health, and sanity, written by brilliant minds who knew what it meant to be human and wrote their life lessons into their fiction. Structured like a reference book, readers simply look up their ailment, be it agoraphobia, boredom, or a midlife crisis, and are given a novel to read as the antidote. Bibliotherapy does not discriminate between pains of the body and pains of the head (or heart). Aware that you’ve been cowardly? Pick up To Kill a Mockingbird for an injection of courage. Experiencing a sudden, acute fear of death? Read One Hundred Years of Solitude for some perspective on the larger cycle of life. Nervous about throwing a dinner party? Ali Smith’s There but for The will convince you that yours could never go that wrong. Whatever your condition, the prescription is simple: a novel (or two), to be read at regular intervals and in nice long chunks until you finish. Some treatments will lead to a complete cure. Others will offer solace, showing that you’re not the first to experience these emotions. The Novel Cure is also peppered with useful lists and sidebars recommending the best novels to read when you’re stuck in traffic or can’t fall asleep, the most important novels to read during every decade of life, and many more.

 

Brilliant in concept and deeply satisfying in execution, The Novel Cure belongs on everyone’s bookshelf and in every medicine cabinet. It will make even the most well-read fiction aficionado pick up a novel he’s never heard of, and see familiar ones with new eyes. Mostly, it will reaffirm literature’s ability to distract and transport, to resonate and reassure, to change the way we see the world and our place in it."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[aggieamy]

http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2013/07/a-guide-to-karin-fossums-inspector-sejer/

 

 

I have found a great new mystery series by Karin Fossum, the Inspector Sejer mysteries. They are Norwegian with one more to be translated into English. I was able to find the first one titled Eva's Eye. At first it seemed a bit choppy which might have been in the translation but was more likely due to my reading with an accent or stylistic because of the stress the main character was under. After a quarter of the way through it had smoothed out so.....

 

Inspector Sejer is a true gentleman police detective. What a lovely person, no other way to describe him. The author also worked some highly interesting ideas into the fabric of the book. Things like why create art that no one wants to buy or understands as your primary job? Also why it was acceptable to be a pr*stitute as a choice. It was a good mystery with lots to think about.

 

This seems just like my type of book.  Thank you for the suggestion.  

 

Do they have any icky-ness?  Basically graphic violence or rape.  It's not a book killer but I like to be warned so it doesn't catch me off guard.  

 

Same here.

 

 

I've started another Wodehouse book. :001_wub:

 

You have some fun reading ahead of you this week then!

 

Sympathy and advice please------my beloved Kindle Keyboard will no longer charge. I tried two different cables with no luck. I plugged it into the wall charger and into the laptop. And to make sure, I repeated everything with dd's Kindle. Hers charged :(

 

I am so sad!

 

So now I need advice. Should I get the regular Kindle or the Paperwhite? I read indoors and outdoors. I've been using a cover w integrated light to read in lowlight situations. I do NOT like reading books on my ipad and only do so when the library ebook is only available in the ePub format.

 

Any cover to recommend? I like a sturdy cover so I can throw the kindle into whatever bag (especially when travelling) without worry.

 

Dh says to get whatever I want. He's no help :lol:

 

I just have a regular kindle but DH has had a regular and a paperwhite.  He loves the paperwhite and says to get it.  

[aggieamy]

Finished:

 

A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters - I enjoyed it and like Brother Cadfael as a character.  I've put the next mystery on request at my library already.  ****

 

Currently Reading:

 

Smart but Scattered by Peg Dawson

Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible: The Fascinating History of Everything in Your Closet by Tim Gunn

 

Book count:  11/52

 

Last night when we started Little Britches DD requested that we read something else.  I think the warning that it was sad has scared her off of it.  So we're looking for a read aloud suggestion.  And an audiobook suggestion.  

 

 

[Kareni]

Last night when we started Little Britches DD requested that we read something else.  I think the warning that it was sad has scared her off of it.  So we're looking for a read aloud suggestion.  And an audiobook suggestion.  

 

 

This read aloud was a hit in our home (many moons ago).  It's also available as an audibook.

 

Chuck and Danielle by Peter Dickinson

 

From Booklist:

 

"Gr. 3-6. This clever episodic story set in England introduces Danielle and her dog, Chuck. A well-bred, high-strung whippet, Chuck is not just nervous but downright terrified of everything from cats to pigeons to stuffed animals to paper bags. Each chapter involves Danielle and Chuck in a different set of circumstances (foiling a purse snatcher, setting loose a herd of cows, befriending an unpromising new neighbor), and each ends with a running joke about Danielle's desire to see Chuck save the universe. Woven into the story is the recurring theme of Danielle's curiosity about her father's identity. When her dad makes a cameo appearance near the end of the book, Danielle finally discovers answers to her questions and learns why he has never been part of her life. Although the book has its thoughtful moments, the tone never stays serious for long. The staccato writing is eminently readable, the depictions of Chuck's weird worldview are perceptive, and many of the scenes are laugh-out-loud funny. Absolutely entertaining both for kids reading alone or for parents and teachers reading aloud. Carolyn Phelan"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Last night when we started Little Britches DD requested that we read something else.  I think the warning that it was sad has scared her off of it.  So we're looking for a read aloud suggestion.  And an audiobook suggestion.  

 

Have you read any of these?

 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

 

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

 

The Incredible Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander

 

Red Sails to Capri by Ann Wells

 

The Anybodies by N. E. Bode

 

Our very favorite read-aloud is The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (you'll have to pull out your Scottish accent for reading this one!)

[shukriyya]

 

 

One of my favorite books about children's books is the now out of print

Reading for the Love of It: Best Books for Young Readers by Michele Landsberg.

 

And, as a side note given the recent discussion of feminism, it was interesting to see that the author published this book a few years ago. (No, I haven't read it.)

Writing the Revolution

 

"A collection of journalist Michele Landsberg's Toronto Star columns, where she was a regular columnist for more than twenty-five years between 1978 and 2005. Michele has chosen her favourite and most relevant columns, using them as a lens to reflect on the the second wave of feminism and the issues facing women then and now. An icon of the feminist movement and a hero to many, through her writing and activism Michele played an important role in fighting for the rights of women, children, and the disenfranchised. Her insights are as powerful for the generation of women who experienced the second wave as for the rising tide of young feminists taking action today."

 

Regards,

Kareni

Posting from my phone so this will be brief but thank you for that little memory jog. Michele Landsberg was part of my literary landscape growing up in Canada.

 

My mother was in the publishing biz and one of her jobs involved setting up interviews for various authors and accompanying them on their rounds when they came through our city. I'm pretty sure Michele Landsberg was one of them :D

[Just Robyn]

You are my hero!  Rousseau has been on my to-be-read list since I can remember and The Discourse lives on my shelf.  Want to give me a nudge?

 

:blushing: Gosh, that's probably the best compliment I've gotten in a year. Thanks! 

 

Here are some of my favorite parts:

 

 

The first language of man, the most universal and most energetic of all languages, in short, the only language he had occasion for, before there was a necessity of persuading assembled multitudes, was the cry of nature.

 

 

The first man, who, after enclosing a piece of ground, took it into his head to say, "This is mine," and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society.

 

 

Besides, the citizens of a free state suffer themselves to be oppressed merely in proportion as, hurried on by a blind ambition, and looking rather below than above them, they come to love authority more than independence. When they submit to fetters, 'tis only to be the better able to fetter others in their turn. It is no easy matter to make him obey, who does not wish to command.

[shukriyya]

Last night when we started Little Britches DD requested that we read something else. I think the warning that it was sad has scared her off of it. So we're looking for a read aloud suggestion. And an audiobook suggestion.

The Princess and the Goblin

The Princess and Curdie

At the Back of the North Wind

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

King of the Wind

[mumto2]

This seems just like my type of book.  Thank you for the suggestion.  

 

Do they have any icky-ness?  Basically graphic violence or rape.  It's not a book killer but I like to be warned so it doesn't catch me off guard.

There is violence that does have more of a surprise factor then being incredibly graphic. I knew the violence had to coming but I really did not expect it when it happened. I am not sure how to class the major s*x/r*pe scene because it involved pr*stitution so it was up to a point what was expected by the characters. Much of this book is rather matter of fact about many things which I found quite fascinating. Please remember I read a large number of somewhat violent books (not sure what that says about my taste) and this one wasn't overly descriptive imo but it does describe.

[aggieamy]

This read aloud was a hit in our home (many moons ago).  It's also available as an audibook.

 

Chuck and Danielle by Peter Dickinson

 

 

Have you read any of these?

 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin  << One of DD's favorite books!

 

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

 

The Incredible Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander

 

Red Sails to Capri by Ann Wells  << We did this as a read aloud last year and enjoyed it

 

The Anybodies by N. E. Bode

 

Our very favorite read-aloud is The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (you'll have to pull out your Scottish accent for reading this one!)

 

 

The Princess and the Goblin

The Princess and Curdie

At the Back of the North Wind

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

King of the Wind

 

You gals are wonderful!  Thank you.  I put:

 

Time Cat

Chuck and Danielle

King of the Wind

The last of the Really Great Whangdoodles 

 

on reserve at my library.  I'll let DD peruse them and decide.

[shukriyya]

Hypothetically I'm all for universality... but when Stacia asked her question... and I looked, not at what I read, but at what I *love*, the books that have shaped me in the strongest, deepest ways, the books I reread until they fall apart, the ones that are my touchstones... and, without any conscious intent (and without having read most of the books on 'female writers' lists)... my top choices are almost all written by women (the standout exception is, of course, Shakespeare)

 

...it is different for poetry... and drama, actually, but for novels.... the gender disbalance is actually shocking to me

 

Our vulnerability is a little scary - especially because it can be so invisible. ... and so unavoidable (at least for those of us with tech-dependent incomes and/or who live in large cities.) On the other hand, I think every mode of living contains its own significant vulnerabilities, and how we face (or avoid) the physical and existential vulnerabilities of life is at the core of most theology... and most literature,

 

!

I'd like to come back to these observations particularly the second one when I'm not limited by the finitudes of posting from my phone.

[shukriyya]

You gals are wonderful! Thank you. I put:

 

Time Cat

Chuck and Danielle

King of the Wind

The last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

 

on reserve at my library. I'll let DD peruse them and decide.

Also The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and Blackhearts in Battersea both by Joan Aiken

[Pam in CT]

The Princess and the Goblin

The Princess and Curdie

At the Back of the North Wind

The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles

King of the Wind

 

Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles is really, really great.  Someone recommended it to me a few years ago and I started reading it to my then 7-year old, and both my much-older kids overheard and joined the bandwagon as well.  A whole lexicon of family-vocabulary grew out of that shared reading experience...  Julie Andrews!  Who knew?!

[aggieamy]

Last of the Really Great Wangdoodles is really, really great.  Someone recommended it to me a few years ago and I started reading it to my then 7-year old, and both my much-older kids overheard and joined the bandwagon as well.  A whole lexicon of family-vocabulary grew out of that shared reading experience...  Julie Andrews!  Who knew?!

 

I didn't put two and two together with Julie Andrews.  Well.  I wonder if I should let DD in on that information when she's deciding what our next book should be.  She is a huge Sound of Music fan.  She's probably humming a song from it right now.

[Stacia]

I'm currently working on the surrealist work The Way Through Doors by Jesse Ball.

 

So far, it's quite charming. Seems to be a little bit Kafkaesque (vague unknowns but w/out the stress & anxiety that Kafka brings to the table), along with some fable-like qualities, & a small dash of Calvino meandering tossed in.... I wish I had a chunk of time to dedicate to reading this because following the building/morphing of the story/stories would be easier in one go rather than stopping & starting it numerous times.

 

Interestingly enough, there are no page numbers in this book. Instead the paragraphs are numbered (every 5th paragraph), lending the work both a classical & poetic visual look.

 

From The New Yorker:

 

 

 

In an inversion of the Scheherazade legend, the hero of this dizzyingly circuitous novel must tell stories all night to a beautiful amnesiac, to keep her awake and alive. He begins by explaining himself: he writes pamphlets (sample title: “An Inquiry into the Ultimate Utility of the Silly, as Prefigured in the Grave and Inhospitableâ€) and works as a municipal inspector, in an office reachable only by ladder. His stories dissolve, unfinished, into other stories; characters—including a “guess artist†who reads minds with a thirty-three-per-cent accuracy rate, a girl who accepts only written communications (preferably typed), and a spurned Russian empress who forces her former lover to marry “the ugliest of womenâ€â€”vanish and resurface; and reality is generally given the heave-ho. It’s a thrilling ride through an alternative New York (think Steven Millhauser on acid), where the tallest building extends hundreds of feet below ground and cabbies are paid in gold doubloons.

[Violet Crown]

This week I finished St Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias. St Hildegard was a Benedictine abbess and mystic, and Scivias is a series of her visions and their interpretations. This was originally a gorgeously illustrated manuscript which was, unfortunately, destroyed in the Second World War.

 

I was careful not to read any of the introductory matter or discussions of St Hildegard, as she has been somewhat appropriated as part of feminist Christianity, and I wanted to meet her on her own terms. It's very clear why she would be an appealing figure for a feminist interpretation, though her life challenges a conventional post-Enlightenment feminist narrative. Her complex and layered visions are populated by symbolic characters who are nearly all female, with the notable exception of the Devil, and a somewhat abstract Christ, who is inevitably referred to in terms of his birth of the Virgin. The Church is seen as deeply feminine and maternal, with the male clergy referred to only briefly, and then chiefly to be excoriated for corruption. Hildegarde sees virginity as fundamentally liberating and the surest source of spiritual strength and purity. She was a strong, intelligent, gifted woman who founded monasteries, wrote music, and had profound mystical experiences; contrary to the myth of linear progress of women's rights, in her time and place she was able to achieve these things without any real challenge from male secular powers or hierarchy, but rather was respected in her lifetime for her position and abilities.

 

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

 

But the fifth [divine virtue] was armed and arrayed with a helmet on her head, and a breastplate and greaves, and iron gloves; a shield hung from her left shoulder; she was girded with a sword and she held a spear in her right hand. And under her feet a lion lay, its mouth open and its tongue hanging out, and some people also stood; some were blowing trumpets, some fooling with instruments used in shows, and some playing different games. And that figure trampled the lion under her feet, and at the same time pierced these people with the spear she held in her right hand. And she said, "I conquer the strong Devil, and you also, Hate and Envy and Filth, with your deceptive jesters."

-Book 3, Vision 3: The Tower of Anticipation of God's Will

[Violet Crown]

Reading this week: On azucena's suggestion, J.A. Symons' The Quest for Corvo; also Austen's Mansfield Park (see? another woman!); and if I get it in gear, taking up this month's challenge (sort of) with Dante's Purgatorio (having recently read Inferno).

[shukriyya]

This week I finished St Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias. St Hildegard was a Benedictine abbess and mystic, and Scivias is a series of her visions and their interpretations. This was originally a gorgeously illustrated manuscript which was, unfortunately, destroyed in the Second World War.

A friend of mine has gone deeply into St. Hildegard's work. Perhaps this would interest you... http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/churchs-new-doctor-inspires-womans-voice#

[mumto2]

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are finally off on our trip tomorrow. Not sure how often I will have internet but am hopeful that I will be able to keep up here. :) Happy reading ......

 

Hopefully I will have time later tonight to catch up.

[Stacia]

This week I finished St Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias. St Hildegard was a Benedictine abbess and mystic, and Scivias is a series of her visions and their interpretations.

 

This calls to mind a book I read a few years ago: Lying Awake by Mark Salzman. Has anyone else read it?

 

In his third novel, Lying Awake, Mark Salzman breaks the primary rule of fiction by creating a protagonist who has virtually no external life. Sister John of the Cross, a middle-aged nun cloistered in a Carmelite monastery in contemporary Los Angeles, languished for years in a spiritual drought--"her prayers empty and her soul dry"--until she suddenly received God's grace in the form of intense mystical visions. So vivid have her visions become that they burn a kind of afterglow into her mind that she transcribes into crystalline (and highly popular) verse. The only downside is that they are accompanied by excruciating headaches that cause her to black out.

 

The story hinges on Sister John's discovery that her visions are in fact the result of mild epileptic seizures. As she learns from her neurologist, temporal-lobe epilepsy commonly brings about "hypergraphia (voluminous writing), an intensification but also a narrowing of emotional response, and an obsessive interest in religion and philosophy." Dostoyevsky, the classic victim of this condition, wrote of his raptures: "There are moments, and it is only a matter of five or six seconds, when you feel the presence of eternal harmony.... If this state were to last more than five seconds, the soul could not endure it and would have to disappear." An exact description of Sister John's visions. The question she now faces is whether to go ahead with surgery--and risk obliterating both her spiritual life and her art--or cling to a state of grace that may actually be a delusion ignited by an electrochemical imbalance.

 

Using a very limited palette, Mark Salzman creates an austere masterpiece. The real miracle of Lying Awake is that it works perfectly on every level: on the realistic surface, it captures the petty squabbles and tiny bursts of radiance of life in a Los Angeles monastery; deeper down it probes the nature of spiritual illumination and the meaning and purpose of prayer in everyday life; and, at bottom, there lurks a profound meditation on the mystery of artistic inspiration. Salzman made a highly auspicious debut in 1986 with Iron and Silk, a memoir of his years in China, and since then he has dramatically changed key in every book--most recently from the absurdist American suburban chronicle of Lost in Place to the artistic-crisis-cum-courtroom-drama novel The Soloist. Lying Awake is quieter and more sober than Salzman's previous narratives, but it is also more accomplished, more thought-provoking, and more highly crafted.

[shukriyya]

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are finally off on our trip tomorrow. Not sure how often I will have internet but am hopeful that I will be able to keep up here. :) Happy reading ......

 

Hopefully I will have time later tonight to catch up.

Safe travels, mumto2 :D

[Violet Crown]

Heaths and moors are similar, aren't they?  What exactly is the difference or are they not as similar as I think?

 

I read somewhere that heaths are just like moors, only more blasted.

  

A friend of mine has gone deeply into St. Hildegard's work. Perhaps this would interest you... http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/churchs-new-doctor-inspires-womans-voice#

Thanks for the interesting link.

[Jane in NC]

I read somewhere that heaths are just like moors, only more blasted.

The heath on which we took our post-Sunday dinner walk last August was indeed blasted--literally.  German planes would circle over Kent after bombing London, dropping any excess bombs before returning to their airbases.  My son's girlfriend and her siblings would sledge in these craters in the heath.

 

Two points:  I loved The Girl's use of the word "sledge" since I would say "go sledding".  Secondly, the gorse is thick in the heath.  How unpleasant if one got entangled in it!

[prairiegirl]

Any other books-about-books that you can recommend? :bigear:  I looooove books about books.

 

 

Sure,  my two favourites  are by Pat Conroy (I think it is called My Reading Life)  and  Tolstoy and the Purple Chair  by Nina Sankovitch

[Ali in OR]

Nothing finished here this week. Oh, except Murder on the Orient Express which has been our read-aloud the last few weeks. We've been snowed in since last Thursday and then the power went out yesterday so I read the whole third part to the girls with the whole family camped around the fireplace. The DVD is on hold at the library.

 

Hope to make it out of the house and to the library tomorrow. Friday is our normal day, but we were snowed in (I know, snowed in but didn't get any books finished--doesn't sound right). Lots of stuff I want to look for there--have a list here somewhere, all stuff mentioned by you guys.

 

Reading Munro's Dear Life on the treadmill and enjoying it. Very excited that I finally got notice from Amazon that I should have S. on 2/18 (after my birthday, but not too much!).

[MicheleinMN]

Have you read any of these?

 

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

 

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

 

The Incredible Journey of Prince Jen by Lloyd Alexander

 

Red Sails to Capri by Ann Wells

 

The Anybodies by N. E. Bode

 

Our very favorite read-aloud is The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (you'll have to pull out your Scottish accent for reading this one!)

 

Red Sails to Capri by Ann Wells - This one is a family favorite, and I've read it at least 3 times now.  I highly recommend it! :)

[marbel]

Last night when we started Little Britches DD requested that we read something else.  I think the warning that it was sad has scared her off of it.  So we're looking for a read aloud suggestion.  And an audiobook suggestion.  

 

Swallows and Amazons, and the books following!  Our family's favorite read-aloud ever.  Ever.   

 

OK, now:  S&A is a wonderful book, but if the reader/listener is not into sailing, the beginning can be a bit of a slog.  I don't remember exactly when it clicked, but when it did, it clicked big and we could not stop reading.  So glad we gave it a chance! 

 

And not every single book in the series is wonderful; there is some archaic language and some ethnic stereotypes to be had in a couple.  But overall, the best every family readaloud books. 

 

Have I made it clear they are the best ever?

 

For a fun, fun readaloud, the Eddie Dickens trilogy is a scream. Just hilarious goofiness. The audio is fabulous.  I just got yelled at by my kid that we need to get to the library before closing so I will get more details on Eddie Dickens later.

 

ETA:  The first book in the trilogy is A House Called Awful End; author is Philip Ardagh. The audio by Martin Rayner is a scream.  Craziness.  A great road trip audio.

 

[Angel]

Hey guys!  I missed a couple days and had so much catching up to do here!  Too much to comment on, so I tried to "like" some posts here and there.

 

Yes, Stacia, new picture.  I have lost 20lbs since the previous picture and thought I would update (though you can't really tell that in the picture...these darn chubby cheeks!).

 

I finished Austenland by Shannon Hale last night.  I've had this book on my shelf for a while (so qualifies for Dusty).  Dd19 actually read it before me.  It was enjoyable but not outstanding.  I made it halfway through the book before dh brought home the movie for dd to watch.  It kind of ruined something of the book for me.  The movie really made the book into an over the top comedy, quite farcical.  I felt it kind of misrepresented the tone of the book, or at least how I was interpreting the book.  Unfortunately, I couldn't expell those images while finishing the book.  It was cute but not a lot of substance.  

 

Up next is The Horse and His Boy.  We had to reschedule a missed co-op (we had a snow day at co-op lol) and so I only have one week to read it and prepare for my class.  Picked up the YA Parasol Protectorate and the newest Flavia at the library today, and also have Dante in my tbr pile.  

 

*1 – The Women of Christmas by Liz Curtis Higgs (Isarel)

*2 – Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans (USA)

 

*3 – The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis

 

*4 – Michael Vey:  The Rise of the Elgin by Richard Paul Evans (USA/Peru)

 

*5 – Soulless by Gail Carriger (England, BaW rec)

 

*6 – Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley (England)

 

*7 – A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters (12^th Century, England/Wales,BaW rec)

 

*8 – Michael Vey: Battle of the Ampere by Richard Paul Evans (Peru)

 

*9 - Divergent by Veronica Roth (USA)

 

*10 - Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett (Turkey, 11th/12th Century, Dusty Book)

*11 - Austenland by Shannon Hale (England, Dusty Book)

[shukriyya]

I'm currently working on the surrealist work The Way Through Doors by Jesse Ball.

 

So far, it's quite charming. Seems to be a little bit Kafkaesque (vague unknowns but w/out the stress & anxiety that Kafka brings to the table), along with some fable-like qualities, & a small dash of Calvino meandering tossed in.... I wish I had a chunk of time to dedicate to reading this because following the building/morphing of the story/stories would be easier in one go rather than stopping & starting it numerous times.

 

Interestingly enough, there are no page numbers in this book. Instead the paragraphs are numbered (every 5th paragraph), lending the work both a classical & poetic visual look.

 

From The New Yorker:

In my mind this book is hovering, literally, between my tbr pile and a 'not interested' pile. Honestly, I see it hanging there in the gloaming trying to decide which pile it wants to be in. I'm intrigued by the poetry of the premise but scared off by the surrealist possibilities...

 

 

 

The heath on which we took our post-Sunday dinner walk last August was indeed blasted--literally. German planes would circle over Kent after bombing London, dropping any excess bombs before returning to their airbases. My son's girlfriend and her siblings would sledge in these craters in the heath.

 

Two points: I loved The Girl's use of the word "sledge" since I would say "go sledding". Secondly, the gorse is thick in the heath. How unpleasant if one got entangled in it!

I went sledging for many years in my girlhood until eventually I just went sledding :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally, two more wonderful books to read aloud or listen to are 'Dominic' by the wonderful William Steig and 'The Incredible Journey' by Sheila Burnford. Actually Dominic is also a wonderful, quick stand-alone read for adults.

[Kareni]

... what led me to reread Jane Eyre was receiving a Christmas gift of two of the new Penguin hardcovers from my niece ...

 

Here you go, Jane ~

 

From bizarrevictoria: Bad Jane Eyre Covers (contains adult language)

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Jane in NC]

Here you go, Jane ~

 

From bizarrevictoria: Bad Jane Eyre Covers (contains adult language)

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

Fabulous!  I love how cover art changes!  Thank you for the link.

 

 

[shukriyya]

Here you go, Jane ~

 

From bizarrevictoria: Bad Jane Eyre Covers (contains adult language)

 

Regards,

Kareni

Some of those tag lines are very amusing :lol: