Book a Week in 2014 - BW36

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday, my lovelies!  Today is the start of week 36 in our quest to read 52 Books. Welcome back to all our readers, to all those who are just joining in and to all who are following our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 Books blog to link to your reviews. The link is below in my signature.

 

52 Books Blog - Native Son by Richard Wright:  Highlighting the 22nd  novel in Susan Wise Bauer's list of fiction reads from her book The Well-Educated Mind is The Native Son by Richard Wright.  Written in 1940, The Native Son is  set in 1930's and tells the story of  a 20 year old poor black man, Bigger Thomas, who kills a young white girl.  Wright was determined to portray racism in its grittiest form and his book shocked both the White and African American communities when it was released. 

 

History of the Ancient World:  Chapters 44 and 45

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

 

Link to week 35

[Robin M]

Morning ladies.  I'm still in Eve and Roark's world and reading Imitation in Death.  

 

Going into a new month so my non fiction books in progress are:

 

The Making of a Story by Alice LePlante for Method and Madness class

The Lively Art of Writing by Lucille Payne (studying with James)

Toward God by Michael Casey

Bible - currently in Job

Theology for Beginners - F.J. Sheed

 

 

 

 

[Robin M]

Okay, I just have to share since I've been spending a lot of time off line, working on writing classes, editing my latest story.  One of the exercises for Method and Madness class:

 

I am the Camera

Morning time, enjoying sitting out on my back patio, sipping Earl Grey and trying to write, but as usual nature distracts me. Peppermint and lavender waft past in the cool summer breeze, blending with the fragrant steam from my tea. I’m surrounded by the chatter of squirrels and birds, leaves rustling and the hum of traffic off in the distance. A plane passes overhead, leaving a white contrail in the clear, cloudless blue sky.

A hummingbird zips by, comes back and hovers in the air a few feet away from me, chirps good morning. So tiny, she watches me, talks some more before heading over to investigate one of my tabby cats sitting under the laurel bushes. Wings buzzing, she dips up and weaves down, moves ten feet, five feet closer, then more until she is no more than jumping distance from Gracie. She flits back up to the top of the laurels to eat from one of the purple morning glory flowers that winds over the top of my bushes. Hunger satisfied for the moment, she comes back down again to talk to the cat and poops, barely missing her. Oh, this one is feisty.

Gracie’s tail swishes, her ears rotate, head following the bird to keep an eye on it. She’s caught them before. Perhaps this is the one I saved a few years back. She’s actually managed to get one. I saw her playing with something on the patio, realized it was a bird. I ran out, grabbed her and made her drop the bird, a hummingbird. I scoop the bird up and she sits quiet in my hand, trusting that I won’t hurt her.

Tiny, iridescent green head, sparkly breast feathers, long thin beak almost as long as her body; miraculously not injured, nothing broken, just stunned. So delicate and small, yet not so fragile after all. I stroke her, light and gentle and she chirps. She sits quietly in my hand, allows my son to run his finger over her body, talk to her. His face is precious, the awe in his eyes, the fascination in his smile, the joy in his voice as he talks to her. Soon, her little body begins to vibrate, then she tries to fly and lands on the patio table. She rests a few moments, then she’s up and zipping off over the trees – gone.

[Stacia]

Beautiful story, Robin!  :)

 

P.S. Love the whole piece & especially this sentence: "So delicate and small, yet not so fragile after all."

[Jane in NC]

Here are a few verses from Tsvetaeva's Moscow in the Plague Year that I would like to share with y'all:

 

edit

 

And for the insomniacs in our group:

edit

It has been a while since I read a book of poetry from page one until the end. This activity takes a different mindset, a different sort of mental discipline.  A poem is often viewed outside of the context of the book in which it was published but there is something about the conceptual whole that is worth examining. I should do this more often.

 

Rilke's essays on Rodin are sending me on rabbit trails.  For one thing, there are some photos of Rodin sculptures in the book, but here photographer Michael Eastman focuses on faces, hands or torsos, not on the sculptures in their totality.  In many respects he captures more of the essence of the sculpture than a postcard photo does.  (I say this remembering my obsession with Rodin's sculpted hands while touring an exhibit at the NC Museum of Art around 2000.)  Google has been my companion on these rabbit trails though.  Looking at a photo of Rodin's Caryatid, I am reminded of Heinlein's description of the piece in Stranger in Strange Land:

 

 

 

edit

From beauty to human self interest at its worst:  I'm about half way through The Manchurian Candidate which is probably the most cynical political novel I have ever read.

[TeacherZee]

I'm still reading Her Royal Spyness. I'm about half way through the second to last book(so far). But now I'm getting antsy for the next In Death which is due on the 9th. I will also have to speed read the first three chapters of The Giver since I left it at work and we are supposed to discuss it this week. I just need a refresher :)

[Stacia]

I've been doing pretty well plowing through all the goodies from my sister's library...

 

The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa. (5 stars. Loved it. It's already on my favorite lists. And, I think it's the first Angolan book I've ever read.)

Electrico W by Hervé Le Tellier (4 stars. Very good. And, I learned what Oulipo is.)

The Facades by Eric Lundgren (3 stars. Oddly-compelling & somewhat clever, though malaise-tainted.)

The Supernatural Enhancements by Edgar Cantero (4 stars. Really fun. Would be great to read in October. A mix of gothic, mystery, adventure....)

 

(I also finished White Masks by Elias Khoury [4 stars. Harrowing.], but it's an Archipelago book I had bought & brought from home.)

 

Am currently reading complete & utter brain candy: Koko Takes a Holiday by Kieran Shea. So far, it's sci-fi, action-y fun. Perfect beach/pool reading when the old brain cells are fried by the heat.

 

Will probably also start reading something else today too. Not sure what yet....

[mlbuchina]

I am about half way through City of Bones. It's not bad. Depending on how it ends, I may not read the next one.

[Jane in NC]

The Oulipo link was quite interesting, Stacia.

 

Since it is almost a new month (September already?!), I will also post my reading list for the year.  What surprises me is how many translated books I have read as well as how many new books.  I often feel that I only read dead authors or old crusties.  Apparently not.

 

2014 5/5/5 Challenge:  Food Novels or Food Memoirs, Eastern/Middle European Authors, Shaw, Dorothy Dunnett, Dusty Books

Chunksters

 

1) The Lodger, Marie Belloc Lowndes, 1913--Dusty Book #1

2) The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1852--Dusty Book #2

3) Radiance of Tomorrow, Ishmael Beah, 2014

4) The Mission Song, John le Carre, 2006

5) The Debt to Pleasure, John Lanchester, 1996--Foodie #1

6) The Cunning Little Vixen, Rudolf Tesnohlidek, 1920, 1985 translation--Dusty #3, Eastern/Middle Europe #1

7) Scoop, Evelyn Waugh, 1938--Dusty #4

8) The Upcycle, William McDonough and Michael Braungart, 2013

9) Red Gold, Alan Furst, 1999

10) Destination Unknown, Agatha Christie, 1954 (audio book)

11) Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte, 1847

12) Purge, Sofi Oksanen, 2008, Eastern European #2

13) The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane, 1895 (audio book)

14) My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki, 1998--Foodie #2

15) The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England, Ian Mortimer, 2013

16) Cheerfulness Breaks In, Angela Thirkell, 1940

17) The Moon-Spinners, Mary Stewart, 1962

18) Mastering the Art of French Eating, Ann Mah, 2013, Foodie #3

19) Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi ,2011

20) Autobiography of a Corpse, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, stories written 1925-1927; translation by Joanne Turnbull and Nikolai Formozov 2013 Eastern/Middle Europe #3

21) Before Lunch, Angela Thirkell, 1939

22) The Demon in the House, Angela Thirkell, 1934

23) The Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey, 1948

24) The Return of Captain John Emmett, Elizabeth Speller, 2011

25) Miss Buncle's Book, D.E. Stevenson, 1936

26) Postern of Fate, Agatha Christie, 1973

27) This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart, 1964

28) The Language of Baklava, Diana Abu-Jaber, 2005, Foodie #4

29) Scales of Gold, Dorothy Dunnett, 1991, DD#1

30) They Came to Baghdad, Agatha Christie, 1951

31) Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys, 1966

32) The Truth, Terry Pratchett, 2000.(audio book)

33) Kingdom of Shadows, Alan Furst, 2000, Dusty #5

34) Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, Robin Sloan, 2012

35) Grayson, Lynne Cox, 2006,(audio book)

36) Death in the Truffle Wood, Pierre Magnan 1978; translation Patricia Clancy 2005) Foodie #5

37) And Only to Deceive, Tasha Alexander, 2005

38) The Narrow Corner, W. Somerset Maugham, 1932

39) Appointment with Death, Agatha Christie, 1938 (Audio book)

40) The Cone-Gatherers, Robin Jenkins, 1955

41) The Greater Journey:  Americans in Paris, David McCullough, 2011

42) The Time Regulation Institute, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, 1962; translation Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe 2013

43) The Property, Ruta Modan, graphic novel, 2013, translated by Jessica Cohen

44) The Girl in the Green Raincoat, Laura Lippman 2008

45) The Siege, Helen Dunmore, 2002

46) The Moon and Sixpence, Somerset Maugham, 1919

47) The Devil in Amber, Mark Gatiss, 2006

48) Blood Royal, Barbara Cleverly, 2012

49) Stuart Little, E.B. White, 1945

50) Major Barbara, G. B. Shaw, performed 1905, published 1907, Shaw #1

51) Archangel, Andrea Barrett, 2013

52) Arms and the Man, G.B. Shaw, performed 1894, published 1898, Shaw #2

53) City of Thieves, David Benioff, 2008

54) The Dud Avocado, Elaine Dundy, 1958; afterward by the author 2007

55) Saint Joan, G.B. Shaw, peformed 1923, published 1924, Shaw #3

56) The Day of the Dead, Maurizo de Giovanni 2010; translation by Anthony Shugaar, 2014

57) The Oxford Murders, Guillermo Martinez, 2003; translation by Sonia Soto 2005

58) The Nautical Chart, Arturo Perez-Reverte, 2000, translation by Margaret Sayers Peden 2004

59) A Novel Bookstore, Laurence Cosse, 2009; translation by Alison Anderson, 2010

60) Howl's Moving Castle, Diane Wynne Jones, 1986; (Audio book)

61) How to Travel Incognito, Ludwig Bemelmans, 1952, Dusty #6

62) Our Lady of the Nile, Scholastique Mukasonga, 2012; translation by Melanie Mauthner 2014

63) Moscow in the Plague Year, Marina Tsvetaeva, poems written 1918-1920; translation by Christopher Whyte 2014, EE #4

[Angel]

Angel, :grouphug: All I can say is I understand a bit of what you are going through. I spent a year of my life in the shambles of our big move. Being able to spread it out over months sounds like a blessing but allows a great deal of time for doubt. Trying to preserve as much of my stuff which I saw as my life as possible. It is funny because now, eight years later I am getting ready to go back in a purge much of what was saved and is sitting in storage. This will be a long project hopefully, two or three US visits. I am a bit shocked as I mentally sort the inventory how much can now be sold or donated. Other than my grandmother's paintings and some of our children's toys that I want for grandkids a majority is up for discussion. Yes even my books. I have already reread many on the kindle so the love for my copies is essentially gone. I know big gasp from my BaW friends. Admittedly my box of old Nancy Drews and Cherry Ames books is also on the preserve list. Not sure if any of what I just said will offer any comfort to you Angel as you prepare for the future changes and as someone who did not embrace mine with much grace, I literally hid for my first year in England wanting to go back in time. If you haven't guessed although I am very happy now I did not want to move, poor dh,

 

 

 

Thanks!  I appreciate the encouragement and the story!  

 

 

I dearly hope we can get the whole family out to Skye and the highlands while she's here.  It'd be a crying shame not to.

 

If you get out there, please post pictures!  Dd19 is Skyeler but her most used nickname is Skye.  She has always wanted to visit the Isle of Skye :D   

 

Oh, and I would have bought the jelly beans  :D

 

Down with a cold.  Little Librarian got it first, then baby, now mama, and daddy doesn't look too good either.  

 

Try to carry on without me for a few day ...  :crying:

 

:laugh:

 

:grouphug:  to everyone!  I was surprised by how many people were sounding ill in church this morning!  It's the end of August!  Makes me nervous for the winter!

 

I'm still reading Little Women though both of my girls have finished.  We started school this week so I've not had the reading time to finish it up.  Aly and I are almost to the end of Famous Men of the Middle Ages, and we are reading The Door in the Wall.  So maybe I'll will get caught up here next week.  

 

After those, I've got Julianne Donaldson's new (well, relatively) book Blackmoore awaiting me ... :seeya: Amy, I just know you want to read it with me  :001_tt2:

[Shawneinfl]

Remind me what the third "5" is for 5/5/5 challenges. Categories, books and ???

[Negin]

My reading has been very slow. I'm reading Maya's Notebook by Isabel Allende. Although I normally love her books, this one is very painful at times. 

 

[Jane in NC]

Remind me what the third "5" is for 5/5/5 challenges. Categories, books and ???

 

I have understood this to be five books from five categories.  Not sure why there is a third "5"!

 

[shukriyya]

It's been a fairly plodding reading week. I'm about 2/3 of the way through Picking Bones from Ash and enjoying it, particularly the Japanese overlay. And I'm about 1/2 way through Tara Brach's, Radical Acceptance. I'm very much enjoying the clear lens this author and teacher uses to bring awareness and presence to the unpolished parts of ourselves. Emily Dickinson : Beyond the Myth beckons. I've not done anymore reading of it since last week but it sits on my kindle glowing and waiting.

 

Agreeing with Jane re the 5/5 challenge.

[Robin M]

Remind me what the third "5" is for 5/5/5 challenges. Categories, books and ???

Way back when the x/x/x challenge started in the blogosphere, it stood for books / categories / year.  It worked well when the year was a single digit.  5/5/5 stuck with us because it was easier to do 5 categories rather than 14 books in 14 categories for 2014

[Shawneinfl]

Way back when the x/x/x challenge started in the blogosphere, it stood for books / categories / year.  It worked well when the year was a single digit.  5/5/5 stuck with us because it was easier to do 5 categories rather than 14 books in 14 categories for 2014

 

Maybe we could come up with a new designation for the third "5" like "read in 5 different locations" or "read within 5 days".

[mumto2]

Way back when the x/x/x challenge started in the blogosphere, it stood for books / categories / year.  It worked well when the year was a single digit.  5/5/5 stuck with us because it was easier to do 5 categories rather than 14 books in 14 categories for 2014

Thanks Robin, I always have wondered about the third 5.

 

I did find some time to read today. I finished The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughn. I think I mentioned requesting it a couple of weeks ago. Nothing spectacular and not as much baking competition parts as I had hoped for. I liked one of the five contestants and wanted to follow her to the end so I finished it. Could have easily discarded.

 

Also finished the Booker long list book that I have been working on for awhile. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris was as the NPR review said twice as weird as you think. This probably contains what could be considered spoilers but in reality might make things clearer as you read....http://www.npr.org/2014/06/26/325529167/a-dentist-confronts-the-gaping-maw-of-life-in-to-rise-again. It was one of those books that made me finish it but I don't know why other than I couldn't quit. A mismash of so many ideas that it made my head spin. I went back and reread several times trying to find what I had missed, generally nothing the story jumped. Themes and topics were really far ranging, everything from gum disease to multiple religions. The main character is not overly likable with bad language(hate what he calls his girlfriends) and stalking tendencies, who had no cyber presence until a stalker(for lack of any idea what to call it) gave him one. The book is the man dealing with his websites and twitter when he isn't generating them. It is very different and I gave it a 3.

[ChrisB]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted to this thread, but I'm back after finishing my recent reads Something Other Than God by Jennifer Fulwiler and Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan.  I thoroughly enjoyed Fulwiler's book, and thought she was a good writer.  Anyone who is interested in a conversion story from atheism to Catholicism would enjoy this book.  Gaffigan's book was light and funny about his every day life--I needed those deep belly laughs.  

 

1. The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, Bk 1, Lauren Willig

2. The Masque of the Black Tulip, Bk 2, Lauren Willig

3. The Deception of the Emerald Ring, Bk 3, Lauren Willig

4. The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, Bk 4, Lauren Willig

5. The Temptation of the Night Jasmine, Bk 5, Lauren Willig

6. The Betrayal of the Blood Lily, Bk 6, Lauren Willig

7. The Orchid Affair, Bk 8, Lauren Willig

8. The Garden Intrigue, Bk 9, Lauren Willig

9. The Hobbit, J.R.R Tolkien

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

11. No Good Duke Goes Unpunished, Sarah Maclean

12. Exiles, Ron Hansen

13. Attachments, Rainbow Rowell

14. Dad is Fat, Jim Gaffigan

15. Something Other Than God, Jennifer Fulwiler

[Pam in CT]

...

 

The Book of Chameleons by José Eduardo Agualusa. (5 stars. Loved it. It's already on my favorite lists. And, I think it's the first Angolan book I've ever read.)

 

This looks great.  I can't remember ever reading anything set in Angola either.  Hmm...

 

 

Re Skye, and Costco:

 

If you get out there, please post pictures!  Dd19 is Skyeler but her most used nickname is Skye.  She has always wanted to visit the Isle of Skye :D   

 

Oh, and I would have bought the jelly beans  :D

I took some pictures today, but will have to wait until I get home tomorrow to post (don't know how to do it from my phone...)  Skye is a beautiful name!

 

I'm already feeling churlish re: jelly beans.  What was I thinking??!  Poor kid, left all alone with her windex...

 

 

Remind me what the third "5" is for 5/5/5 challenges. Categories, books and ???

THANK YOU.  I thought it was just me!

 

 

Maybe we could come up with a new designation for the third "5" like "read in 5 different locations" or "read within 5 days".

I'm thinking: "read this book on 5 or more devices..."

[Uff Da!]

Here are a few verses from Tsvetaeva's Moscow in the Plague Year that I would like to share with y'all:

 

And for the insomniacs in our group:

It has been a while since I read a book of poetry from page one until the end. This activity takes a different mindset, a different sort of mental discipline.  A poem is often viewed outside of the context of the book in which it was published but there is something about the conceptual whole that is worth examining. I should do this more often.

 

"The thing is, even when I close my eyes

I have no certainty that dreams will come.

Might it not make things much simpler if

I used my own two hands for closing them?

 

I'm worried they'll stay open in the grave--

I'll be denied the sound sleep of the just.

Stop trying to change me. Owlets need the night,

and sleepless people need their sleeplessness."

 

 

Rilke's essays on Rodin are sending me on rabbit trails.  For one thing, there are some photos of Rodin sculptures in the book, but here photographer Michael Eastman focuses on faces, hands or torsos, not on the sculptures in their totality.  In many respects he captures more of the essence of the sculpture than a postcard photo does.  (I say this remembering my obsession with Rodin's sculpted hands while touring an exhibit at the NC Museum of Art around 2000.)  Google has been my companion on these rabbit trails though.  Looking at a photo of Rodin's Caryatid, I am reminded of Heinlein's description of the piece in Stranger in Strange Land:

 

 

From beauty to human self interest at its worst:  I'm about half way through The Manchurian Candidate which is probably the most cynical political novel I have ever read.

 

 

Funny-  I am an insomniac and dream while awake...and I've been told I sleep with my eyes open.

 

I've always loved Rodin and was fascinated by Camille Claudel.  It's interesting how they influenced each other.

 

I'm still working on "The Last Unicorn" and was pleasantly surprised by some of the classical references in it.  Robin-  It looks like I'm moving on to Job this week too (but I don't have a Bible reading plan at this point and I'm guessing you do?)

[shukriyya]

Maybe we could come up with a new designation for the third "5" like "read in 5 different locations" or "read within 5 days".

 

Read them one-handed? :smilielol5:

 

 

[Uff Da!]

 

I'm already feeling churlish re: jelly beans.  What was I thinking??!  Poor kid, left all alone with her windex...

 

 

You can always mail some to her.

[JennW in SoCal]

If you get out there, please post pictures!  Dd19 is Skyeler but her most used nickname is Skye.  She has always wanted to visit the Isle of Skye :D   

 

 

My only connection to the Isle of Skye is my electric violin -- it was made there!  I'm afraid I'm a little too stodgy and middle aged to really pull off rocking out on my green electric fiddle, but it is awfully fun.  

 

I enjoyed your writing Robin, especially about the humming bird.  They are such inquisitive and feisty little characters. I'm jealous that you got to hold one in your hand!

 

I am reading total fluff this week, but not flufferton fluff. In fact I'm a little dumbfounded that I bought the book in the first place and more dumbfounded to confess that I'm enjoying it!   It is The Thousand Names by Django Wexler, a "Flintlock Fantasy".  In other words it is fantasy but it is Napoleonic era technology, and the setting and plot are all military based. Sounds dreadful, right?  It has pulled me in, though, as it is character driven.  I saw the author at a Comic Con panel, and later when he was signing books I chatted with him about my obsession with the Master and Commander series.  He thought I might enjoy his book, signed a copy for me and here I am.  Darnedest thing.

 

My list for the year -- 48 so far:

 

Mystery/Thrillers

W is for Wasted by Sue Grafton

Kingdom of Shadows by Alan Furst

Diamond Solitaire by Peter Lovesy

A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

The Summons by Peter Lovesy

The Rafael Affair by Iain Pears

Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Bloodhounds by Peter Lovesy

The Bookman’s Tale by Charlie Lovett

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling)

Children of the Revolution by Peter Robinson

Voice of the Violin by Andrea Camilleri (Inspector Montalbano)

Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers

 

Literature:  Master and Commander series

The Fortune of War by Patrick O’Brien 

Surgeon’s Mate by Patrick O’Brien 

The Ionian Mission by Patrick O’Brien 

Treason’s Harbor by Patrick O’Brien 

Far Side of the World by Patrick O’Brien

 

Other Literature

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott 

Strange Bodies by Marcel Theroux

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

And Only to Deceive by Tashia Alexander

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

 

Sci-fi/fantasy

Darwin Elevator by Jason Hough

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

The Night Circus by  Erin Morgenstern

Farthing by Jo Walton

The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

The Martian by Andy Weir

Ha’penny by Jo Walton

Half a Crown by Jo Walton

Storm Front (The Dresden Files bk 1) by Jim Butcher

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett

The Iron Wyrm Affair by Lilith Saintcrow

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

 

Non-fiction

The Hare with the Amber Eyes

Ballerina by Deidre Kelly

Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity by Pru Shaw

In the Wings: Behind the Scenes at the New York City Ballet by Kyle Froman

Musicophilia: Tales of music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

Krakatoa: The Day the Earth Blew Up by Simon Winchester

But He Doesn’t Know the Territory by Meredith Willson

[Pam in CT]

Turns out I missed a good third of last week's thread...

 

 

Sure!

 

I do a lot technical reading for my job and it is often both dense and morbid.  For relaxation, I enjoy modern world literature.  One of my teens really likes nonfiction, so I am always on the lookout for interesting books to pass on to him.

 

Some nonfiction on my to-be-read list:

 

Unbroken by Hillenbrand
In Fact:  Best of Creative Nonfiction

Phantoms in the Brain by Ramachandran

Zeitoun by David Eggers

Salt by Kurlansky

Small Victories by Anne Lamott

 

For fiction, I tend to read by author.  I gave up on Murakami--sorry guys--it was just too disorienting and weird.  Some authors I would like to explore further:

 

Edwidge Danticat

Tan Twan Eng--well, as soon as he writes another one

Orhan Pamuk

Amitav Ghosh

Arundhati Roy

Eli Weisel (have only read Night)

 

That's a short sampling.  The longer list is embarrassing.  :-D

I :001_wub:  Mark Kurlansky.  Salt is brilliant.  Turns out those Incas used salt as the currency that held their empire together.  They had plenty of gold, but they considered it to belong to the sun god, and their subjects didn't see any actual use for it... Ergo, salt.

 

The Wiesel I read most recently was Gates in the Forest -- a truly wondrous allegorical story.  Eliana (here) also recently recommended One Generation After, another (later) memoir, which I have on my TBR list.

 

 

 

That now makes 52 books for me so far this year! And, I've done most of my around-the-world reading except for Antarctica at this point....

 

What are you thinking, for Antarctica?  I think i've got all the other continents, but the Antarctic pickings seem rather slim...

 

 

 

ETA for continental correctness (argh)

[Stacia]

What are you thinking, for Australia? I think i've got all the other continents, but the Antarctic pickings seem rather slim...

 

Australia? I read Lexicon (mentioned by a few BaWers).

http://blogs.seacoastonline.com/seacoast-nh-books/2014/03/21/lexicon-by-max-barry-book-review/

I also hope to read Walkabout by James Vance Marshall.

http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/walkabout/

 

Antarctica? Haven't really looked into it yet. Last year, I ended up reading Poe's book about Pym, plus 3 other variations/take-offs of Poe's book.

[Stacia]

And if you have any Antarctica suggestions, I'm all ears!

 

ETA: I think I may try The Worst Journey in the World because it's at the top of National Geographic's list of 100 best adventure books...

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0404/adventure_books.html

 

I've been meaning to read it for a couple of years now.

[shukriyya]

Not book-related but the Antarctica talk is putting me in mind of my intrepid mom, now gone, who travelled there when she was in her 70s with her dharma teacher and a group of fellow students. She was awed by the physical beauty of the land...there she was climbing in and out of zodiacs to get closeup to gorgeous ice bergs, elephant seals and other wildlife. An unforgettable trip for her.

[mumto2]

Jenn and other Isle of Sky dreamers, this is one of my favourite Skye dreams. Violins and seals, just lovely......http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qS5vyUBjAYU

 

Robin, I enjoyed reading your story and instantly remembered the picture of James and your hummingbird friend. Thank you.

 

Pam have a safe trip home.

[Pam in CT]

Australia? I read Lexicon (mentioned by a few BaWers).

http://blogs.seacoastonline.com/seacoast-nh-books/2014/03/21/lexicon-by-max-barry-book-review/

I also hope to read Walkabout by James Vance Marshall.

http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/walkabout/

 

Antarctica? Haven't really looked into it yet. Last year, I ended up reading Poe's book about Pym, plus 3 other variations/take-offs of Poe's book.

 

Oy.  Antarctica.  

 

(I blame my confusion on all the kilts surrounding me.)

 

I'm all done with Shackleton, and penguins can only take me so far, KWIM?  This one has a certain comic appeal... as does the Worst Journey in the World... (ETA to say: appeal, not COMIC appeal)

 

... the only person I know IRL who's been to Antarctica is my devoted twitcher uncle, who went on a Russian ice-breaker 20+ years ago with an intrepid crew of professional wildlife photographers (he's *not* a professional wildlife photographers, but I guess the competition was not *that* keen, because they accepted his good-but-clearly-amateur portfolio as credentials).

 

He took over 2,000 pictures of penguins.  He loved it.  

 

Me -- Scottish weather is about my limit.

[Stacia]

That one looks pretty fun, Pam.

 

I enjoyed the Poe/Verne/Lovecraft Antarctica reading last year.

 

I would love to visit Antarctica. On my bucket list....

[MicheleinMN]

Still working on Dead Witch Walking and enjoying it :)    I'm listening to Purity of Vengeance by Jussi Adler-Olsen, but broke down and ordered a used hb copy, so I could finally get all the chapters in order.  (It's my audio book for bed, and I keep falling asleep and then wake up and listen to 2 more chapters.  I think it's kind of like watching Pulp Fiction, where eventually I'll listen to every chapter, but all out of order.)  I'm seriously looking forward to Tana French's new book which is out on Tuesday.  I think I'll get it on the Kindle due to price and instant availability.

 

I need to finish The Goldfinch, but not really motivated to keep reading it right now.  

[Kim in Appalachia]

I finished listening to A Signature of All Things.  I did enjoy listening to it, there were beautiful descriptions, but the story was lacking.  There wasn't really a plot, just Alma's life.  

 

Today I started listening to A Life After Life.  I ran for 2 1/2 hrs, so I got a good start on it.  It's a bit hard to follow, I can't allow my mind to drift at all.

 

I've also been reading The Pearl That Broke it's Shell.  It's a very sad book so far.  I spent an hour reading at a Starbucks this week, and if I wasn't in public I would have cried. 

[Just Robyn]

I finished Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. This is my favorite Bradbury book so far. The variation in the stories was fun and interesting for me. 

 

I have read about 100 pages of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It's fun, but a little geeky for me. It probably doesn't help that I recently read Watchmen and two of the Dresden Files books and I'm wondering how I ended up reading so many geek books in a row. 

 

Thankfully, I also started reading the collected poems of Stephen Crane. These poems are so short and powerful. They make me think of haiku without such specific constraints. 

 

I think this one's pretty well known, but it may remain my favorite even after having read so much more of his work.

 

In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said, "Is it good, friend?"

"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;

 

"But I like it

"Because it is bitter,

"And because it is my heart."

 

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

 

And here's one that was new to me. (So maybe it's not as well known?)

 

There were many who went in huddled procession,

They knew not whither;

But, at any rate, success or calamity

Would attend all in equality.

 

There was one who sought a new road.

He went into direful thickets,

And ultimately he died thus, alone;

But they said he had courage.

[NoseInABook]

Stacia, I'm going to have to add The Supernatural Enhancements to my list.

 

Michele, are you finding Dead Witch Walking hard to get into? I've been reading it on and off (mainly off) for a couple of weeks and still am not much more than 100 pages in. I typically love this kind of stuff!

 

Finished Lois Lowry's Son and Michelle DeRusha's Spiritual Misfit. I liked Son but I felt like I've read it before or something and forgot about it? I dunno, I'm pretty sure I haven't but it seemed familiar. DeRusha's Spiritual Misfit made me laugh out loud in parts because it hit home.

 

I'm almost done with Christopher Knight's Season of The Witch that I bought yesterday when my husband and I stumbled upon Chillermania which we thought would be some kind of silly house or horrors or something. Instead of it was Johnathan Rand/Christopher Knight's little bookstore in the middle of nowhere Michigan. I bought the first three Freddie Fernortner books for my almost 6 year old son who needs to be encouraged to jump into a series of chapter books and came out with Season Of The Witch for myself. I also got Lysa Terkeurst's The Best Yes and my friend left Jen Hatmaker's Interrupted for me.

[MicheleinMN]

 

 

Michele, are you finding Dead Witch Walking hard to get into? I've been reading it on and off (mainly off) for a couple of weeks and still am not much more than 100 pages in. I typically love this kind of stuff

 

 

I think the first part is slower, and it almost has that *everything and the kitchen sink* feel to it, but it reminds me of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series,which I really enjoyed, but got kind of tired of after a while, so the vampires, pixies, and spells add to the amusement.  :)

[Jane in NC]

We had one of those completely magical moments earlier this evening.

 

Loggerhead turtle hatchlings emerged from a nest near a friend's on Friday evening.  Saturday night was the second wave.  Our turtle people do an excavation on the third night since hatchlings need their brethren to climb to the surface and if the brethren are gone they may not make it.

 

This guy got a helping hand from humans today:

 

It is about four inches long when it emerges from a ping pong ball sized egg.  If it is one of the lucky ones, it will make it to the Sargasso Sea and hide for a while. Adults grow to three feet in length.

 

Odds are not in its favor.  Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you are sensitive.  Earlier in the day, I saw a baby from this nest that had been brought to the bird rehabbers.  A ghost crab had eaten its eyes.  There is nothing that a rehabber can do but place the blind loggerhead baby in an outgoing tide to become part of the food chain.

 

It is a cruel world out there.

 

So I stood at the sideline cheering on these four little loggerheads from the excavation, sending them the message to swim, swim, swim to the safety of the sargassum. 

 

And for some reason I thought of my own son, reminding him across the miles that it is perfectly acceptable to lend and to take a helping hand. There are plenty of kind people in the world.

 

I thanked the turtle volunteers from the bottom of my heart.

 

 

 

[NoseInABook]

I loved Stephanie Plum too so I'll see if I can push myself to finish Dead Witch Walking with the hopes of it getting better. I was looking forward to another fluff series and was hoping this one would be it! 

[Kareni]

While driving back from our camping trip, my husband and I started listening to

Blade Runner (original title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) by Philip K. Dick and read by Scott Brick. 

 

We found it started off slowly; however, we became more invested as the story continued.  We have perhaps two more hours to listen to, and then we plan to

obtain the movie to see how it compares to the book.

 

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.

By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . They even built humans.

Emigrées to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.

Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Stacia]

Kareni, I've always wondered about reading that. Looking forward to your final review & comparison w/ the movie too. (I haven't seen the movie either.)

[Robin M]

I'm still working on "The Last Unicorn" and was pleasantly surprised by some of the classical references in it.  Robin-  It looks like I'm moving on to Job this week too (but I don't have a Bible reading plan at this point and I'm guessing you do?)

Yes, I'm doing the one year bible read through one year bible blog. Old / New / Psalm and Proverb each day and he does commentary which is usually interesting and educational.

 

While driving back from our camping trip, my husband and I started listening to

Blade Runner (original title: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) by Philip K. Dick and read by Scott Brick. 

 

We found it started off slowly; however, we became more invested as the story continued.  We have perhaps two more hours to listen to, and then we plan to

obtain the movie to see how it compares to the book.

 

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was published in 1968. Grim and foreboding, even today it is a masterpiece ahead of its time.

 

By 2021, the World War had killed millions, driving entire species into extinction and sending mankind off-planet. Those who remained coveted any living creature, and for people who couldn't afford one, companies built incredibly realistic simulacrae: horses, birds, cats, sheep. . . They even built humans.

 

Emigrées to Mars received androids so sophisticated it was impossible to tell them from true men or women. Fearful of the havoc these artificial humans could wreak, the government banned them from Earth. But when androids didn't want to be identified, they just blended in.

 

Rick Deckard was an officially sanctioned bounty hunter whose job was to find rogue androids, and to retire them. But cornered, androids tended to fight back, with deadly results."

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

I read the story as well as watched the movie this past year and both are equally good.  Movie (loosely based) has a few elements from the book and the focus is less on the sheep, more on the android people.  Lots of action and will hold your attention throughout. 

[Stacia]

Movie (loosely based) has a few elements from the book and the focus is less on the sheep, more on the android people.  Lots of action and will hold your attention throughout. 

 

Well, it has Harrison Ford -- how can it not have one's attention?  ;)  :laugh:

[Robin M]

Well, it has Harrison Ford -- how can it not have one's attention?  ;)  :laugh:

 

Ain't that the truth!!!!!

[Stacia]

Finished Koko Takes a Holiday. Fast-paced & exciting sci-fi/cyperpunk action book -- no brain cells required, but fun for beach/pool reading. It's like watching a blockbuster, summer action movie with words instead of pictures. Grab some popcorn & enjoy! 

 

Hey, it got a starred review on Booklist!

*Starred Review* Set five centuries into the future, this first novel begins in a resort complex, the Sixty Islands, where elite brothel owner Koko Martstellar narrowly escapes an assassination attempt. Fleeing to the orbital community known as the Second Free Zone, Koko is astonished to learn that her old friend, Portia Delacompte, is behind the assassination. While Koko is trying to figure that out, Portia is trying to figure out something just as baffling—why she ordered the death of her friend—for her memories concerning the hired hit seem to have vanished. This futuristic wild ride starts out quickly and doesn’t really slow down until it’s over. You would think such a breakneck pace wouldn’t leave much time for character development, but Shea skillfully weaves characterization into dialogue and the thoughts and actions of the people in the novel. The use of the present tense certainly helps make the story feel urgent and immediate, too. We get caught up in Koko’s predicament and are carried along with her as she desperately tries to keep herself alive until she can track down her would-be assassin. Great fun and a fine introduction to an author with a distinctive style. Expect more from Shea, perhaps in several genres.

 

The ending totally sets it up for there to be another book in the series. According to the last page of the book Koko the Mighty will be coming out next June. Could definitely be a fun, read-in-the-sun series.

 

Btw, in the acknowledgements, he recognizes his literary agent Stacia. (Not me, btw.  :lol: ) But, hey, if you have a literary agent named Stacia, that's pretty cool!  ;)

 

Negin, this is nothing like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, imo (other than the punk style). Fun, though, if you want a popcorn read.

[Pam in CT]

((Sigh....))

We had one of those completely magical moments earlier this evening.

 

Loggerhead turtle hatchlings emerged from a nest near a friend's on Friday evening.  Saturday night was the second wave.  Our turtle people do an excavation on the third night since hatchlings need their brethren to climb to the surface and if the brethren are gone they may not make it.

 

This guy got a helping hand from humans today:

 

It is about four inches long when it emerges from a ping pong ball sized egg.  If it is one of the lucky ones, it will make it to the Sargasso Sea and hide for a while. Adults grow to three feet in length.

 

Odds are not in its favor.  Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you are sensitive.  Earlier in the day, I saw a baby from this nest that had been brought to the bird rehabbers.  A ghost crab had eaten its eyes.  There is nothing that a rehabber can do but place the blind loggerhead baby in an outgoing tide to become part of the food chain.

 

It is a cruel world out there.

 

So I stood at the sideline cheering on these four little loggerheads from the excavation, sending them the message to swim, swim, swim to the safety of the sargassum. 

 

And for some reason I thought of my own son, reminding him across the miles that it is perfectly acceptable to lend and to take a helping hand. There are plenty of kind people in the world.

 

I thanked the turtle volunteers from the bottom of my heart.

 

Oh, Jane, this is just beautiful.

 

I've always wanted to participate in, or at least watch, a turtle hatching / rehab.  One of my bucket list items...

 

And on the cruel world... I've learned a good deal about the apparent cruelties of the natural world from my tender-hearted 11 yo.  She loves animals of all sorts, plans to work in conservation in some capacity when she grows up, has been vegetarian (in a family which is not) since her seventh birthday, saves up her money to give to conservation organizations, only uses hair products that don't do animal testing, etc.  (And the rest of the family didn't start out that way - she's the Compassion Change Agent among us.)

 

We've been lucky enough to witness a number of dramatic wildlife encounters in far-flung places ... and I used to wait with dread for her to fill up with pity for the victims, to tell us she couldn't take it... But she never does.

 

It's not cruel, it's dinner, is her take upon witnessing the dingo tackling the seagull.  Cruelty is something only people do.

 

 

We're still sorting a number of things out - if you could keep us in mind that things should go smoothly and... gently, I would really appreciate it.

 

_____

 

Poetry by Arthur Quiller-Couch: This has been sitting, dustily, on my Kindle for an embarrassingly long time, so when I was looking for 'Q' authors, I pulled it out (so to speak).  It wasn't *at all* what I expected.  I stopped (twice!) to double check that I had selected the book I thought I had... it felt at first as if I had wandering into a theological essay.  If you are looking for discussions of meter and rhyme, go elsewhere... if you want an overview of poetry or thoughts on poets and poems... this is not the book you are looking for... but if you want an enthusiastic expression (laden with erudite quotations!) of the purpose and function of poetry ["Poetry's chief function is to reconcile the inner harmony of Man (his Soul, as we callit) with the outer harmony of the universe", in case you were wondering]  then you might enjoy this (very slender) volume.

 

Two bits that amused me:

 

[before a quotation from Esdras]: "someone usurping the voice of the Almighty and using (be it said to his credit) excellent prose, declares:"

 

and

 

"...you cannot leave a delicate instrument such as Poetry lying within reach of the professional teacher; he will certainly, at any risk of marring or mutilating, seize on it and use it as a hammer to knock things into heads..."

 

:lol:

 

 

[mumto2]

I think the first part is slower, and it almost has that *everything and the kitchen sink* feel to it, but it reminds me of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series,which I really enjoyed, but got kind of tired of after a while, so the vampires, pixies, and spells add to the amusement. :)

I loved Stephanie Plum too so I'll see if I can push myself to finish Dead Witch Walking with the hopes of it getting better. I was looking forward to another fluff series and was hoping this one would be it!

 

 

I fell in love with this series a few years ago and read the whole thing in a huge out of order mish mash on a trip to the States. I think Dead Witch Walking was actually one of the last books I read. In case you haven't figured out that I generally find it very hard to read series out of order my being willing to was a huge compliment to the author. I like the Stephanie Plum comparison and think it is pretty accurate. I haven't read the latest two books in the series, I have been planning to read them after a complete in order reread.....maybe in October.

 

Robin, We are doing Spooky Books for October again, aren't we? I have been creating a pile of rereads with their new releases for the month. Anne Rice has a new vampire book due out soon....

 

We had one of those completely magical moments earlier this evening.

 

Loggerhead turtle hatchlings emerged from a nest near a friend's on Friday evening. Saturday night was the second wave. Our turtle people do an excavation on the third night since hatchlings need their brethren to climb to the surface and if the brethren are gone they may not make it.

 

This guy got a helping hand from humans today:

 

It is about four inches long when it emerges from a ping pong ball sized egg. If it is one of the lucky ones, it will make it to the Sargasso Sea and hide for a while. Adults grow to three feet in length.

 

Odds are not in its favor. Do not read the rest of this paragraph if you are sensitive. Earlier in the day, I saw a baby from this nest that had been brought to the bird rehabbers. A ghost crab had eaten its eyes. There is nothing that a rehabber can do but place the blind loggerhead baby in an outgoing tide to become part of the food chain.

 

It is a cruel world out there.

 

So I stood at the sideline cheering on these four little loggerheads from the excavation, sending them the message to swim, swim, swim to the safety of the sargassum.

 

And for some reason I thought of my own son, reminding him across the miles that it is perfectly acceptable to lend and to take a helping hand. There are plenty of kind people in the world.

 

I thanked the turtle volunteers from the bottom of my heart.

 

Beautiful Jane.

[Onceuponatime]

Happy September!

 

Since it is one of the days that feels like a turning of the year, I will post my list of books read so far:

 

Books read 2014:

January-

The Winter Ghosts- Kate Mosse (France, early 20th century, 14th century)

Mrs. DeWinter- Susan Hill (Europe, Britain,  based on Rebecca)

Snow Falling on Cedars- David Guterson (Washington State, WWII, Japanese immigrants, mystery)

Troubling a Star- Madeleine L'Engle  (Antarctica, juvenile  mystery)  

The Snow Child- Eowyn Ivey (Alaska,19th century, fairytale retelling)

Emily Dickinson is Dead- Jane Langton (Massachusetts, Homer Kelly )

Winter Study- Nevada Barr (US/Canadian border island, suspense, least favorite)

The History of the Kings of Britain- Geoffrey of Monmouth (written in 12th Century, Britain, Europe, dusty book)

Russian Winter- Daphne Kalotay (mid 20th century, Russia, Massachusetts)

Winter Pony- Iain Lawrence (Antarctica, juvenile historical fiction)

 

February-

The Rosewood Casket- Sharon McCrumb (North Carolina, Appalachian family mystery)

A Single Shard-Linda Sue Park (Korea, 12th century, juvenile historical fiction, Newberry Award)

The Dante Game- Jane Langton (Italy, mystery, Homer Kelly)

Life After Life- Kate Atkinson (England, Germany, Early 2oth century, WWII)

The Inferno- Dante (13th century, Hell)

The Thief of Venice - Jane Langton(Italy, Homer Kelly, Art treasure)

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag- Bradley (England, mystery, Flavia)

 

March-

Practical Magic -Alice Hoffman (US, witches)

The Angel's Game- Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Spain, early 20th century, books about books, reread)

Miss Seeton Draws the Line- Heron Carvic (British cozy mystery)

A Natural History of Dragons-  (Fantasy, dragons)

Water Tales- Alice Hoffman- (US, mermaids)

Chocolat- Joan Harris (France, chocolate, witches)

Payment Deferred- C.S. Forester (England, suspense, blah)

 Cinnamon and Gunpowder-(Pirates, chefs, 19th century)

A Year in Provence- Peter Mayle (France, Humor, Food, non-fiction)

Incident at Badamya-Dorothy Gilman (Burma, intrigue)

 Looking at Philosophy: The Unbearable Heaviness of Philosophy Made Lighter- David Palmer (non-fiction)

 

April-

 A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek- Annie Dillard (US, Virginia, nature, non-fiction)

Aunt Dimity Vampire Hunter- Nancy Atherton (England, cozy mystery)

The Camelot Caper- Elizabeth Peters (England, mystery)

Maisie Dobbs- Winspear (England, mystery, WWI)*

Thou Art That- Joseph Campbell ( non-fiction, religious metaphor)*

King of Shadows- Susan Cooper (England, juvenile historical fiction, Globe Theater, 16th century)

The Secret Keeper- Kate Morton (England, mystery)

Sold to Miss Seeton- (England, cozy mystery)

A Red Herring Without Mustard- Alan Bradley (England, Flavia, mystery)

The Cherry Orchard and The Three Sisters- Anton Chekov (Russia, plays)

The Believing Brain- Michael Shermer (non-fiction)

 

May-

Boneshaker- Cherie Priest (US, Seattle, Civil War era, steampunk)

Kaleidoscope- Dorothy Gilman (US, New York state, mystery, psychics)

A Legend in Green Velvet- Elizabeth Peters (Scotland, mystery)

Murder at the National Gallery- Margaret Truman (US, Washington DC,  art theft, mystery)

The Art of Happiness- Dalai Lama (non-fiction)

The Immaculate Deception- Iain Pears (Mystery, art theft, Italy)

Uncertain Journey- Dorothy Gilman (Intrigue, Europe)

Girl in Hyacinth Blue- Susan Vreeland (Netherlands,  historical fiction, Vermeer, 17th century)

Girl Reading- Katie Ward (Art, historical fiction, Europe)

Night Train to Memphis - Elizabeth Peters (Mystery, Egypt)

Sundays at Tiffany's- James Patterson (Angels, romance, US)

 

June-

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett (Fantasy, Pied Piper alternate story)

Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman (Fantasy, London)

Caravan- Dorothy Gilman (Adventure, Early 20th century, African desert)

Birds of a Feather- Jaqueline Winspear (Maisie Dobbs mystery, England)

Dodger- Terry Pratchett (Victorian England, alternate history, YA)

The Missing Marquess- Jane Springer (Victorian England, Sherlock Holmes Sister, juvenile mystery)

The Little Book- Seldon Edwards (Vienna 1897, US-Boston, time travel)

Garden Spells- Sarah Addison Allen (US, magic, romance)

 

July-

I am Half Sick of Shadows- Alan Bradley (England, Flavia, mystery)

The Faith Club- (non-fiction, interfaith dialogue)

The Martian- Andy Weir (Mars, survival)

Drop-Dead Healthy- A. J. Jacobs ( non-fiction, humor, health)

Paris in the Twentieth Century- Jules Verne (Paris, dystopian)

A Year on Ladybug Farm- Donna Ball (Virginia mountains, fixer-upper)

The Evolution of God- Robert Wright (non-fiction, history of religion)

Books Can Be Deceiving-  (Connecticut, librarian, mystery)

The City of Ember (juvenile dystopian)

 

August-

The Rosie Project (Australia, romantic comedy)

The Sugar Queen- Allen (US, Romance, magical)

The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing- Allen Kupfer (Europe, vampires)

Like Water for Chocolate- (Mexico, romance, magical)

The Carpet People- Pratchett (YA, Fantasy)

Speaking From Among the Bones- Bradley (England, mystery, Flavia)

Time Cat- Lloyd Alexander (juvenile fiction, time travel)

Letter to a Christian Nation- Sam Harris (non-fiction, atheism)

 

 

I'm amazed at the amount of "romance"  I've read this year. It is not usual for me.  Most of it had magical elements which was its appeal. I've covered more spots on the globe than I would have in the past, thanks to these threads, but am still lacking something in Africa and South America.

 

I'm still working on By Its Cover. Happy Reading!

[Jane in NC]

History of the Ancient World:  Chapters 44 and 45

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Perhaps the question should be:  What are you not reading this week?  Woefully behind on HoAW.

I've been doing pretty well plowing through all the goodies from my sister's library...

 

 

 

 

 

I must say that I love the layout of these bookcovers! 

 

My only connection to the Isle of Skye is my electric violin -- it was made there!  I'm afraid I'm a little too stodgy and middle aged to really pull off rocking out on my green electric fiddle, but it is awfully fun.  

 

 

I have a new image of you now with your green electric fiddle!  Do you have red shoes or boots to wear when playing it?

 

I finished Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. This is my favorite Bradbury book so far. The variation in the stories was fun and interesting for me. 

 

Thank you crstarlette for sharing your poetry lists and individual poems with us.  They have been inspiring me!

[Violet Crown]

I need encouragement. I've read almost nothing this week. Well actually I have read, partially or in entirety, D'Aulaire's Norse Myths, Robinson Crusoe (abridged), The Sea Around Us, Man's Great Adventure, The First Book of Ancient Greece, Johnny Texas on the San Antonio Road (a classic!), Who Lives Here?, The Adventures of Don Quixote, Prehistoric Animals, All About the Ice Age, A Treasury of Stories for Eight-Year-Olds, and I Wonder Why Snakes Shed Their Skins*. Yesterday my voice actually cracked dramatically into a feeble croak in the middle of a sentence about Thor dressing up as Freya to fool the jotuns, and I had to quit.

 

Post-bedtime has been spent with Great Girl as she gets ready to go off to her study abroad program. It will be the longest time she's ever spent away from home and she feels an understandable need for Mom time. So no reading in the evenings.

 

And there's still 600 pages to go in Boswell.

 

I think this must be like the colic days. Tell me there will be a day when I will read to myself again.

 

(Dh brought me, from his office, an "accessible" Nabokov, and wonders why I haven't started it yet. Maybe it will be the next comfy couch read-aloud.)

 

*I did not need to know that geckos lick their eyeballs to keep them moist.

[Jane in NC]

While I have never read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, I have seen two versions of Blade Runner. There was the original released back in the early '80's and a director's cut that came out later.  I consider the film to be of cultural importance.  In this household, a surprising number of references are made to it.

 

My husband thought that some of you might be interested in the book he just finished, The Name of the Wind.  It is the first in The Kingkiller Chronicle series by Patrick Rothfuss, a fantasy chunkster that won several awards and would probably captivate the Tolkien fans. Jenn mentioned the author in an earlier thread.

 

I've never been able to gather enough courage to face the Manchurian Candidate... let me know if I should start working up to it.

 

Hard to say, Eliana.  I finished the novel and found it, like the film, to be absurd yet an amazingly powerful statement.  Admittedly I have a Cold War obsession which is why I knew I had to read the book.  Ultimately though The Manchurian Candidate is less about Cold War politics than politics in general.  I cannot imagine you ever craving a dose of cynicism, so I would suggest you read it only when you have the need to do some cultural/political analysis.

[Stacia]

Am now reading Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo. I had this Mexican book recommended to me a couple of years ago as "the book to read" because it was a precursor to the magical realism that was later coming out of South America.

 

From wikipedia:

Pedro Páramo is a short novel written by Juan Rulfo about a man named Juan Preciado who travels to his recently deceased mother's hometown, Comala, to find his father, only to come across a literal ghost town─populated, that is, by spectral figures. Initially, the novel met with cold critical reception and sold only two thousand copies during the first four years; later, however, the book became highly acclaimed. Páramo was a key influence of Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Pedro Páramo has been translated into more than 30 different languages and the English version has sold more than a million copies in the United States.
 

Gabriel García Márquez has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Moreover, García Márquez claimed that he "could recite the whole book, forwards and backwards."^[1] Jorge Luis Borges considered Pedro Páramo to be one of the greatest texts written in any language.

 

and 

 

Critics primarily consider Pedro Páramo as either a work of magical realism or a precursor to later works of magical realism. This may be deceptive, however, since magical realism is a term coined to note the juxtaposition of the surreal to the mundane, with each bearing traits of the other. It is a means of adding surreal or supernatural qualities to a written work while maintaining a necessary suspension of disbelief. Pedro Páramo is distinct to other works classified in this manner because the primary narrator states clearly in the second paragraph of the novel that his mind has filled with dreams and that he has given flight to illusion and that a world has formed in his mind around the hopes of finding a man named Pedro Páramo. Likewise, several sections into this narration, Juan Preciado states that his head has filled with noises and voices. He is unable to distinguish living persons from apparitions. Certain qualities of the novel, including the narrative fragmentation, the physical fragmentation of characters, and the auditory and visual hallucinations described by the primary narrator, suggest that this novel's journey and visions may be more readily associated with the sort of breakdown of the senses present in schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like conditions than with magical realism.

 

Even though it's a slim little novel, it's one to take slower with it's dreamy, hazy quality....

 

Eliana, re: White Masks. I found it harrowing because from a sideways method, the author paints a picture of what war does to the regular populace -- the unease, the privations, the second-guessing, the changing of moral codes, etc.... It is not that it is gross or heavy on the war scenes; in that respect, it is not. It is just six separate people with extended soliloquies, which show their unease, or suffering, or confusion, or heartbreak, or.... It's like seeing the mental & emotional aftermath of a war, if that makes sense. It's not the 'this side won, there was this battle, & that faction' but more of a showing of how fractured one becomes. Knowing there are so many around the world this very instant living this life today really reached deeply to my core. I have never been able to wrap my head around the fact that people can & do live in & through the horrors of war & then adjust back to a 'normal' life at some point. I understand it, but I also don't understand it. I think this book just strummed that whole range of thoughts & emotions for me....