Book a Week in 2014 - BW48

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday, dear hearts!  Today is the start of week 48 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 - Happy Thanksgiving: A poem by Ella Wilcox written in 1896 about finding thanks in every day things instead of just one day out of the year:

 

We walk on starry fields of white
   And do not see the daisies;
For blessings common in our sight
   We rarely offer praises.
We sigh for some supreme delight
   To crown our lives with splendor,
And quite ignore our daily store
   Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way
   Upon our thought and feeling.
They hang about us all the day,
   Our time from pleasure stealing.
So unobtrusive many a joy
   We pass by and forget it,
But worry strives to own our lives
   And conquers if we let it.

There’s not a day in all the year
   But holds some hidden pleasure,
And looking back, joys oft appear
   To brim the past’s wide measure.
But blessings are like friends, I hold,
   Who love and labor near us.
We ought to raise our notes of praise
   While living hearts can hear us.

Full many a blessing wears the guise
   Of worry or of trouble.
Farseeing is the soul and wise
   Who knows the mask is double.
But he who has the faith and strength
   To thank his God for sorrow
Has found a joy without alloy
   To gladden every morrow.

We ought to make the moments notes
   Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;
The hours and days a silent phrase
   Of music we are living.
And so the theme should swell and grow
   As weeks and months pass o’er us,
And rise sublime at this good time,
   A grand Thanksgiving chorus.

 

 

*********************************************************************************

 

History of the Ancient World - Chapters 68 and 69

 

 

Yeah! A whole week off from lessons.  What are your plans for Thanksgiving and what are you reading this week?

 

 

 

Link to week 47

 

 

[Robin M]

I just started #3 in Dean Koontz Frankenstein Series - Dead and Alive.   On ebook, diving into J.R. Ward's Possession, #5 in Fallen Angels series

 

Finished another series reread of Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock story.  Good every time.

 

Excited as Tuesday, # 11 in Jennifer Estep's Elemental Assassin series is coming out - Black Widow

 

Writing wise, Chapter 4 of Making of a story is all about writing epiphanies and missed opportunities.  So much fun writing scenes that fit into my current WIP.  

[Kareni]

I've done a couple of rereads of Julie James' books; I enjoyed revisiting both. (Some adult content.)

 

Love Irresistibly (Fbi/Us Attorney)

 

It Happened One Wedding

 

Regards,

Kareni

[shukriyya]

Well, I'm thick in the world of turn-of-the-century Vienna with The Lady in Gold. At the center of the story is the painting itself but also prominent is the relationship between Adele Bloch-Bauer, she of the famous Lady in Gold painting, and Gustav Klimt.

The author describes how Adele inspired the portrait and how Klimt made more than a hundred sketches of her-simple pencil drawings on thin manila paper. And O'Connor writes of Klimt himself, son of a failed gold engraver, shunned by arts bureaucrats, called an artistic heretic in his time, a genius in ours. She writes of the Nazis confiscating the portrait of Adele from the Bloch-Bauers' grand palais; of the Austrian government putting the painting on display, stripping Adele's Jewish surname from it so that no clues to her identity (nor any hint of her Jewish origins) would be revealed.

We see how, sixty years after it was stolen by the Nazis, the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer became the subject of a decade-long litigation between the Austrian government and the Bloch-Bauer heirs, how and why the U.S. Supreme Court became involved in the case, and how the Court's decision had profound ramifications in the art world.

In this book listeners will find riveting social history; an illuminating and haunting look at turn-of-the-century Vienna; a brilliant portrait of the evolution of a painter; a masterfully told tale of suspense. And at the heart of it, The Lady in Gold-the shimmering painting, and its equally irresistible subject, the fate of each forever intertwined.

It's a fascinating look at a heady intellectual and artistic time in history. I also started The Birth of Venus this week but it doesn't really work with the focus of my challenge which is a specific work of art rather than a more general place and period of time where art was flourishing which is the focus of the Birth of Venus. I've got a few books lined up at the library waiting to complete this part of the challenge. And it's definitely feeling like a challenge these days. There are several books I'd really like to just sink into but I'm hopeful I'll finish the 5/5 and 52 concurrently. I'm on book 48 this week so am managing to keep up.

 

The kindle daily deal today made me think of Mumto2. Have you read any of the Charles Lenox mysteries? The first six are available for $2.99. They looked so good I bought the first three after reading and thoroughly enjoying the sample

[Just Robyn]

I read the second book in the Series of Unfortunate Events - The Reptile Room. And I finished Moscow in the Plague Year by Marina Tsvetaeva. I enjoyed her devil-may-care attitude and have drawn asterisks and brackets all over the book.

 

I have started reading Mrs. Dalloway and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

 

Here's one asterisked Tsvetaeva poem.

 

Sitting in unlit carriages

or hanging on like death

to trembling, overcrowded footboards

with people who till yesterday were slaves,

I can't stop thinking about you, my son -- 

prince with the shaven head!

 

In the old days, you had your hair,

every strand of it so precious!

 

When love's a mere hair's breadth away,

even in anger [...] nations can

be forged with one sole strand of a child's hair!

And in a hovel, on a makeshift bed,

prince with the shaven head.

 

My prince, my refugee!

Are you able to smile?

We've had far too much sorrow

this year!

[NoseInABook]

I totally got thrown off last week and didn't get much of anything done other than visits and a court date for the wee babe. I'm still reading Hounded by Kevin Hearne and Ten Ways To Destroy The Imagination Of Your Child by Anthony Esolen.

 

Ten Ways is found here: http://isibooks.org/ten-ways-to-destroy-the-imagination-of-your-child-ebook.html and it's still free with the GHC coupon code if anyone is interested! You can get it in any e-reader format you need. 

[aggieamy]

I'm still reading through the Emma manga novels.  I've read 3/8 and will wait to do a formal review until I'm all done.

 

I read my first GH mystery - Death in the Stocks.  I thought it was pretty 'meh'.  I've heard it gets better on the reread so in six years when I decide to give it another try I'll let you know if that's true or not.  

 

 

I overheard DD tell a friend yesterday that "My mom can only stop a book if she's at the end of it.  Sometimes she doesn't go to sleep and is really tired at breakfast."

 

I hope it's not tacky to quote myself but on this line of though ...

 

I finished The Weaver Takes a Wife last night/this morning.  Forgive me but I can't remember who recommended it to me but I know it was one of my BaW friends.  I adored it.  I did decide to completely ignore that fact that Helen was basically sold and decided to not let any icky feelings I had about that interrupt the charming story.  I highly recommend it!

 

NO! You can't make Anzac bikkies with Karo syrup! :svengo: :svengo: :svengo:  :crying:

 

I'm having a dessert and coffee party this week.  Thanks to this thread and the cookie thread I'll be making the lemon traybakes and Anzac bikkies.  There's an English grocery story a town over that I'm going to tomorrow to try to round up all the right ingredients.  My complete apologies to Rosie but I might have to use corn syrup if I fail in my English grocery store mission.  I hope we can still be friends.  

 

 

Writing wise, Chapter 4 of Making of a story is all about writing epiphanies and missed opportunities.  So much fun writing scenes that fit into my current WIP.  

 

That looks like a book I'm interested in.  How are you finding time to read and write so much this month?!?  I'm impressed.  

 

 

NoseInABook - I hope you get more reading in the week.  How's the wee baby sleeping?

[mumto2]

I just finished the second book in the India Black series which Goodreads has been recommending to me for months. Here http://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/india-black-and-the-widow-of-windsor/ is a description. The book's heroine is an unconventional spy (her regular job is being the head Madame at a popular London brothel) who has been recruited by her friend Dizzy (Prime Minister Disraeli) to go to Balmoral to help protect Queen Victoria from an assassination attempt. I know very little about Victoria's life after Albert's death and have to admit my initial reaction to this book was that it was highly inaccurate but after a bit of googling am not sure. I managed to verify some of the bits that I had found really farfetched. The book is light and funny in places. I gave it a 3*.

[Stacia]

   

 

Started reading yet another Thomas Pynchon book (my 3rd this year!) -- The Crying of Lot 49. It even has its own wiki.

 

The Crying of Lot 49 is Thomas Pynchon's classic satire of modern America, about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in what would appear to be an international conspiracy.
 

When her ex-lover, wealthy real-estate tycoon Pierce Inverarity, dies and designates her the coexecutor of his estate, California housewife Oedipa Maas is thrust into a paranoid mystery of metaphors, symbols, and the United States Postal Service. Traveling across Southern California, she meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self-knowledge.

 

Still have I Hotel in progress. It has such a variety of styles that I think I need to read it when I have time to complete at least one chapter in a sitting. It's not working for me to read just a page or two when I have a minute. Since it it over 600 pages long, it may take me awhile to finish this one.

 

“One of the the things that is so amazing about Karen Tei Yamashita’s most recent novel, I Hotel, is that she not only retrieves the sad beauty of a particularly fraught period of a particularly squalid community —Asian Americans in San Francisco during the 1960s-70s — but that she does so in a way that is also exhilarating, celebratory. . . . Which is why we need novels like I Hotel: to patiently help the world remember itself.â€â€”American Book Review

 

I guess with these first two books, I'm hanging out in California in the 1960s/70s.

 

Am also still in progress with How to Sharpen Pencils, lol.

 

"You may think that sharpening a pencil is easy, but David Rees makes it look hard, and that makes all the difference."
—JOHN HODGMAN

 

[NoseInABook]

Amy, he's up at least twice in the night but he needs the calories so I try not to grump about it. ;) DH usually takes one of the feedings too. 

[mumto2]

The kindle daily deal today made me think of Mumto2. Have you read any of the Charles Lenox mysteries? The first six are available for $2.99. They looked so good I bought the first three after reading and thoroughly enjoying the sample

 

 

I haven't read them but I was able to find them in hardcover at one of my libraries. I will add them to my list to request from that library the next time I do a request there. I recently returned most books that weren't from my local library. With the holidays coming I don't think I can continue my juggling act.

 

 

I'm still reading through the Emma manga novels.  I've read 3/8 and will wait to do a formal review until I'm all done.

 

I read my first GH mystery - Death in the Stocks.  I thought it was pretty 'meh'.  I've heard it gets better on the reread so in six years when I decide to give it another try I'll let you know if that's true or not.  

 

 

 

 

I hope it's not tacky to quote myself but on this line of though ...

 

 

 

 

I'm having a dessert and coffee party this week.  Thanks to this thread and the cookie thread I'll be making the lemon traybakes and Anzac bikkies.  There's an English grocery story a town over that I'm going to tomorrow to try to round up all the right ingredients.  My complete apologies to Rosie but I might have to use corn syrup if I fail in my English grocery store mission.  I hope we can still be friends.  

 

 

 

I had no idea that Heyer wrote mysteries. I hope you enjoy the recipes!

[Ali in OR]

Finished A.S. Byatt's Possession. Yay!

 

Picked up Angela's Ashes from my pile from the library book sale last February. I've never read it before. I'm enjoying it--I like McCourt's writing style. I'm also so frustrated for his mom stuck with an alcoholic who won't support his family.

 

Shukriyya, The Lady in Gold sound like a wonderful follow-up after reading Monuments Men and The Hare with the Amber Eye which have some similar themes.

[Stacia]

Shukriyya, The Lady in Gold sound like a wonderful follow-up after reading Monuments Men and The Hare with the Amber Eye which have some similar themes.

 

Not an art theme, but a book that I have in my library stack (I haven't started it yet) that might also fit in with a WWII theme is The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah.

 

 

In The Last Brother by Nathacha Appanah, 1944 is coming to a close and nine-year-old Raj is unaware of the war devastating the rest of the world. He lives in Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean, where survival is a daily struggle for his family. When a brutal beating lands Raj in the hospital of the prison camp where his father is a guard, he meets a mysterious boy his own age. David is a refugee, one of a group of Jewish exiles whose harrowing journey took them from Nazi occupied Europe to Palestine, where they were refused entry and sent on to indefinite detainment in Mauritius.

 

A massive storm on the island leads to a breach of security at the camp, and David escapes, with Raj’s help. After a few days spent hiding from Raj’s cruel father, the two young boys flee into the forest. Danger, hunger, and malaria turn what at first seems like an adventure to Raj into an increasingly desperate mission.

 

This unforgettable and deeply moving novel sheds light on a fascinating and unexplored corner of World War II history, and establishes Nathacha Appanah as a significant international voice.

[MicheleinMN]

I'm still reading and listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  I am really enjoying it.  It's one of those books that I want to keep reading because I want to know what happens, but which I try not to gulp down because I know I will want more when it is done. 

[Robin M]

 

That looks like a book I'm interested in.  How are you finding time to read and write so much this month?!??

I honestly don't know. To be honest I've hardly written a thing this past week. Since we have this next week off, going to do a major editing blitz and see how far I get. I think you'd like the book and the writing exercises. Really makes you think. Have you checked out writers village online. yet? Lots of classes and study groups and great folks. $99 for the first year and you can take as many classes as you want. After that, it's $69 per year. Well worth it.

[Kareni]

I finished The Weaver Takes a Wife last night/this morning.  Forgive me but I can't remember who recommended it to me but I know it was one of my BaW friends.  I adored it.  I did decide to completely ignore that fact that Helen was basically sold and decided to not let any icky feelings I had about that interrupt the charming story.  I highly recommend it!

 

I see that Mothersweets mentioned it (first?) over a year ago.  I read it fairly recently and enjoyed it, too.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[shukriyya]

Finished A.S. Byatt's Possession. Yay!

 

Picked up Angela's Ashes from my pile from the library book sale last February. I've never read it before. I'm enjoying it--I like McCourt's writing style. I'm also so frustrated for his mom stuck with an alcoholic who won't support his family.

 

Shukriyya, The Lady in Gold sound like a wonderful follow-up after reading Monuments Men and The Hare with the Amber Eye which have some similar themes.

 

How did you like Possession? I read it over a decade ago but I recall loving it. She's such an erudite and original writer.

 

'The Lady in Gold' did put me in mind of a few art lovers here. Stacia, in particular, I though you might enjoy this book as well as you, Ali, and others who read and enjoyed the two books mentioned above.

[Kareni]

I'm nursing a small cold ...  And I wish kleenex came in black -- those white tissues just stand out against a sea of black clad musicians.  Or that I played cello so I could hide things behind the instrument.  Ah well.

 

You asked ...

 

Tissue Noir Black Facial Tissues

 

or, if you're feeling somewhat déclassé,

 

this.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

[LaMere Academy]

I haven't been following but I've read 104 books so far this year and  am currently reading You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz.  It has quite a good story to it, not what I expected. 

I'm on Goodreads and if anyone reads a lot of comtemporary fiction I'd love to add some new friends :001_smile:

 

[Jane in NC]

Hello everyone.

 

I have just returned from seeing some family in the Raleigh/Durham area. This included a visit to Duke University's Nasher Art Museum today where I was able to see an exhibit of Miro paintings and sculptures.  Miro makes me very happy--almost as happy as my grand nephew with whom I spent quality time.  :001_smile:

 

Jacqueline Winspear's The Care and Management of Lies is a comfortable sort of book for a war era novel.  There are better WWI novels but our gentle readers might find this one more to their liking.  A bit disappointing for me though.

[Shawneinfl]

I just started and am enjoying In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette. We are in the middle of a major kitchen remodeling project so my time online and in books has been spotty. I'll just be glad when the dust is gone.

[Robin M]

I haven't been following but I've read 104 books so far this year and  am currently reading You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz.  It has quite a good story to it, not what I expected. 

I'm on Goodreads and if anyone reads a lot of comtemporary fiction I'd love to add some new friends :001_smile:

Welcome.  Drop by anytime. 

[Jane in NC]

Oops--forgot to add what is next on the reading agenda.  I think that I'll start Mary Stewart's novel, The Gabriel Hounds, this after some discussion about favorite books by Mary Stewart a week or two ago.

 

I am also reading Jaroslav Hašek's short story collection Behind the Lines which we purchased in the Czech Republic. It is a beautiful little volume with illustrations by Jiri Grus and translated by Mark Corner.

 

[Kareni]

I haven't read it, but this free Kindle book sounds intriguing ~

 

Autumn in Carthage by Christopher Zenos

 

"...Buoyed by a complex hero, Zenos' audacious novel is a compelling mix of academic satire and time-travel adventure..." - Kirkus Reviews.

"...An extraordinarily well written and original novel..." - Midwest Book Review.

"Books of the Month" pick - Association of Independent Authors.

"9 Best Summer Indie Reads." - IndieReader.

 

"The nether side of passion is madness.

Nathan Price is a college professor with crippling impairments, seeking escape from his prison of necessity. One day, in a package of seventeenth-century documents from Salem Village, he stumbles across a letter by his best friend, Jamie, who had disappeared six months before. The document is dated 1692—the height of the Witch Trials. The only potential lead: a single mention of Carthage, a tiny town in the Wisconsin northern highland.

The mystery catapults Nathan from Chicago to the Wisconsin wilderness. There, he meets Alanna, heir to an astonishing Mittel-European legacy of power and sacrifice. In her, and in the gentle townsfolk of Carthage, Nathan finds the refuge for which he has long yearned. But Simon, the town elder, is driven by demons of his own, and may well be entangled in Jamie's disappearance and that of several Carthaginians. As darkness stretches toward Alanna, Nathan may have no choice but to risk it all...

Moving from the grimness of Chicago's South Side to the Wisconsin hinterlands to seventeenth-century Salem, this is a story of love, of sacrifice, of terrible passions—and of two wounded souls quietly reaching for the deep peace of sanctuary."

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Rosie_0801]

 

Nathan Price is a college professor with crippling impairments, seeking escape from his prison of necessity. One day, in a package of seventeenth-century documents from Salem Village, he stumbles across a letter by his best friend, Jamie, who had disappeared six months before. The document is dated 1692—the height of the Witch Trials. 

 

The Weeping Angels are REAL!!!!

 

:svengo:

[ladydusk]

I see that Mothersweets mentioned it (first?) over a year ago. I read it fairly recently and enjoyed it, too.

 

Regards,

Kareni

I enjoyed it too based on Kareni's rec, but didn't read the sequels because of Amazon's plot summaries. They looked awful.

[Rosie_0801]

I finished off 'Taming of the Shrew' (Shakespeare, you sexist sod, I'm all for people using manners, but that last speech was way too much) and a pagan rosary book. That's two towards my 5/5/5 challenges I'm doing so poorly at! Maybe I'm gearing up for a strong finish.  :001_unsure:

[JennW in SoCal]

I guess with these first two books, I'm hanging out in California in the 1960s/70s.

 

 

This is for you, Stacia!

 

You asked ...

 

Tissue Noir Black Facial Tissues

 

or, if you're feeling somewhat déclassé,

 

this.

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

:lol:  :smilielol5:  :rofl:    It's so goth!!  I love it.   (A high schooler once asked me, in all seriousness, if I was "like goth or something" because I was always dressed in black.  Well she only saw me at the theater when I was working, so yeah I was dressed in black.  But it became a family joke that I was "suburban goth mom".   I only needed a black minivan to complete the picture.)

 

 

Anyone else get bad insomnia with colds?  Over the last few nights I've listened my favorite Terry Pratchett, Guards, Guards, listening off and on all night long. I just finished it so now am here catching up!  

 

Thanks to whoever recommended Her Royal Spyness.  I'm sure one of you read it? Or maybe it was an audible freebie one week?  It was a fun piece of fluff, and a good audio book.

[mumto2]

Jenn :grouphug: on the insomnia. Yes, I get insomnia with colds and any other time I don't feel well!

 

I think Teacherzee started the Her Royal Spyness off as popular here. I read it a month ago. Fun book, still waiting for the second one in the series.

[Onceuponatime]

I'm about 3/4 of the way through The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time. I'm enjoying the variety of authors and perspectives.  Some of the stories would classify as more "mysterious" than actual mystery, but that's ok. Yesterday, I started The Clockwork Scarab. November is shaping up to be the slowest reading month of the year for me. Sometimes you've got to put down the books and tend to real life for a while. In this season, I'm reminded to be thankful that I do have the luxury of an abundance books and the ability to read.

 

We always take a complete week off of school around Thanksgiving so I can concentrate on cleaning and baking. Have a happy Thanksgiving Day, to all the BAW celebrants!

[JuanitaL]

I read Of Mice and Men yesterday. I think it was the worst possible ending for the worst possible book ever. I can't think of enough bad things to nicely say about it.

 

 

 

ETA: the one good thing about it was that it was short

[Heather in Neverland]

Started Reading:

Love into Light by Peter Hubbard

 

Still reading:

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck

 

Finished reading:

1. The Curiosity by Stephen Kiernan (AVERAGE)

2. The Last Time I Saw Paris by Lynn Sheene (GOOD)

3. Unwind by Neal Shusterman (EXCELLENT)

4. The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty (EXCELLENT)

5. The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith by Peter Hitchens (AMAZING)

6. Champion by Marie Lu (PRETTY GOOD)

7. Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (INCREDIBLE)

8. Cultivating Christian Character by Michael Zigarelli (HO-HUM)

9. Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff (um...WOW. So amazing and sad)

10. Pressure Points: Twelve Global Issues Shaping the Face of the Church by JD Payne (SO-SO)

11. The Happiness Project: Or Why I spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun. by Gretchen Rubin (GOOD)

12. Reading and Writing Across Content Areas by Roberta Sejnost (SO-SO)

13. Winter of the World by Ken Follet (PRETTY GOOD)

14. The School Revolution: A New Answer for our Broken Education System by Ron Paul (GREAT)

15. Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen (LOVED IT)

16. Beyond the Hole in the Wall: Discover the Power of Self-Organized Learning by Sugata Mitra (GOOD)

17. Can Computers Keep Secrets? - How a Six-Year-Old's Curiosity Could Change the World by Tom Barrett (GOOD)

18. You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You're Deluding Yourself by David McRaney (GOOD)

19. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs (OK)

20. Follow Me by David Platt (GOOD)

21. The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman (SO-SO)

22. Falls the Shadow by Sharon Kay Penman (OK)

23. A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home by Jason Helopoulos (GOOD)

24. The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan (DEPRESSING)

25. No Place Like Oz by Danielle Paige (SO-SO)

26. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helen Hanff (DELIGHTFUL)

27. The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman (WORST ENDING EVER)

28. Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor (SO-SO)

29. Mere Christianity by CS Lewis (BRILLIANT)

30. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (WONDERFUL)

31. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (CAN'T-PUT-IT-DOWN-READ-IT-ALL-IN-ONE-SITTING BOOK)

32. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (SUPER CREEPY BUT REALLY GOOD)

33. A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout (WONDERFUL)

34. The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty (PRETTY GOOD)

35. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez (HEART-BREAKING)

36. One Last Thing Before I Go by Jonathan Tropper (REALLY, REALLY GOOD)

37. The Glory of Heaven by John MacArthur (INTERESTING)

38. Big, Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (AWESOME)

39. Crazy Busy: A Mercifully Short Book About a Really Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung (SPOT ON)

40. Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels by J. Warner Wallace (SUPER INTERESTING)

41. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg Mckeown (AWESOME)

42. Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins (ROMANTIC)

43. A Dream So Big: Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger by Steve Peifer (TEAR-JERKER)

44. Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Gilbraith (MEH)

45. The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle (SUPER INTERESTING)

46. Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins (DREAMY)

47. Attachments by Rainbkw Rowell (SWEET AND FUNNY)

[Pam in CT]

You asked ...

 

Tissue Noir Black Facial Tissues

 

or, if you're feeling somewhat déclassé,

 

this.

 

Regards,

Kareni

:lol: those.are.fabulous.  Love these threads.

[Pam in CT]

:seeya:   shukriyya, I got your package!  Thank you!! and, yum!

[MicheleinMN]

What would a reasonable page number goal, rather than a 52 book goal, look like for a year's worth of reading?  

 

(I really hate not meeting my goal. I tend to be a bit of a box checker that way.)

[Ali in OR]

What would a reasonable page number goal, rather than a 52 book goal, look like for a year's worth of reading?  

 

(I really hate not meeting my goal. I tend to be a bit of a box checker that way.)

 

13,000 pages.

 

That's averaging one 250-page book per week for 52 weeks (52 x 250). I like 250-300 page books; much longer that that and I get a little restless and tend to think the book could have been edited down a bit! Maybe 15,000 pages if you want to get closer to 300 pages per week (15,600=52x300).

[MicheleinMN]

13,000 pages.

 

That's averaging one 250-page book per week for 52 weeks (52 x 250). I like 250-300 page books; much longer that that and I get a little restless and tend to think the book could have been edited down a bit! Maybe 15,000 pages if you want to get closer to 300 pages per week (15,600=52x300).

 

Thanks, Ali!  

 

I tend to read 500+ page books when I can, and they definitely take me more than a week to read, so I always feel behind, but I don't really want to change my book reading style either. 

 

13,000 to 15,000 pages seems reasonable to me. :)

[Stacia]

Thanks, Ali!  

 

I tend to read 500+ page books when I can, and they definitely take me more than a week to read, so I always feel behind, but I don't really want to change my book reading style either. 

 

13,000 to 15,000 pages seems reasonable to me. :)

 

Fyi, Goodreads tracks your page count for you. (For example, if you sort by years, pick your shelf for 2014. Click on "Stats". Then, select the "pages" button. It will show you how many pages you've read.)

 

Right now, I'm behind my previous page count compared to the previous three years. Things are so busy for me that I don't think I'll catch up to them either. But, I'm still pleased with my overall page count. <insert the Heigh Ho whistling here...> Lol.

[Stacia]

This is for you, Stacia!

 

 

:lol:  :smilielol5:  :rofl:    It's so goth!!  I love it.   (A high schooler once asked me, in all seriousness, if I was "like goth or something" because I was always dressed in black.  Well she only saw me at the theater when I was working, so yeah I was dressed in black.  But it became a family joke that I was "suburban goth mom".   I only needed a black minivan to complete the picture.)

 

 

Thanks for the California Dreamin', surburban goth mom. :laugh: :thumbup1:

 

(Hope you're feeling better soon. No cold, but I had insomnia too last night. Ugh. I think my mind is racing about too many things that need doing... and I'd really rather be reading!)

 

Speaking of, I won a $20 gift card to Powell's books today.  :thumbup:  Now I've just got the hard task of figuring out what book or books I should buy with my credit!

[mumto2]

Fyi, Goodreads tracks your page count for you. (For example, if you sort by years, pick your shelf for 2014. Click on "Stats". Then, select the "pages" button. It will show you how many pages you've read.)

 

Right now, I'm behind my previous page count compared to the previous three years. Things are so busy for me that I don't think I'll catch up to them either. But, I'm still pleased with my overall page count. <insert the Heigh Ho whistling here...> Lol.

This is so great! :) Last year I couldn't believe all of you had tracked your pages so well. :lol: I started tracking this year's page count and ended up confused because page numbers varied by edition hugely and gave up.

 

I also now can say without tons of work what I already suspected, most of my reading choices were published during my lifetime thanks to another stats button.

[Kareni]

I finished The Weaver Takes a Wife last night/this morning.

 

I just ran across a review of another book by Sheri Cobb South (the author of The Weaver Takes a Wife).  This is the third of her mystery series, and there are links within the review to reviews of the previous books.  It sounds good to me.

 

Family Plot by Sheri Cobb South

 

Regards,

Kareni

[prairiegirl]

I've been feeling a bit low the last few days and have had energy only to read.  In the last few days I finished:

 

Mr. Fox  by Helen Oyeymi-- a bizarre story but I enjoyed the writing.

 

Everything You Need to Know  by Celeste Ng--this book impacted me deeply.  This book means the same to me as The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry did.  I totally related to these characters, every one of them.

 

Defending Jacob by William Landay--a fluffy crime drama but was exactly what I needed today.

 

I am now on to Book #68--The Storied Life of A.J.Fikry

[Violet Crown]

Not much reading this week due to busy-ness and stress (visiting houseguest; cat decided to go on an adventure and only deigned to return after I had passed out flyers to every house in the neighborhood, in the rain). But I did finish 53. Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class. Rightfully a classic; but I would have to recommend just reading the chapters "Introductory," "Conspicuous Leisure," "Conspicuous Consumption," "Pecuniary Canons of Taste," and (for us lot here) "The Higher Learning as an Expression of the Pecuniary Culture." The rest is very skippable.

 

Now to finish The Last Man, which is beyond doubt the most melodromatic and overwrought novel I have ever perused. But good if you're okay with that sort of thing. And people are dropping like flies now. Then on to Year of Wonders.

[Jane in NC]

Any Paul Bowles fans?  The Sheltering Sky is considered his masterpiece, I think.  Today at a local thrift shop I found A Life Full of Holes, a novel by Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi as recorded and translated by Paul Bowles.  It should be an interesting look at Morocco.

 

 

[shukriyya]

Jane, I enjoyed seeing The Sheltering Sky on the screen when it came out a couple of decades ago. I haven't read any of his work though.

[Violet Crown]

Any Paul Bowles fans? The Sheltering Sky is considered his masterpiece, I think. Today at a local thrift shop I found A Life Full of Holes, a novel by Driss Ben Hamed Charhadi as recorded and translated by Paul Bowles. It should be an interesting look at Morocco.

I recently picked that up! I never read it, but I liked The Police's song about it. :D Okay, I'll move it closer to the top of The Pile.

[Stacia]

From old discussions in relation to The Monuments Men, an update on a related story today --

 

Swiss Museum Accepts Bequest of Nazi-Era Art

Kunstmuseum Bern Obtains Trove From Gurlitt Collection

[ladydusk]

I found a Joan Smith like author, Anne Barbour. She has 14 kindle titles at the reasonable price of $.99. I've read 2, A Talent for Trouble and A Pressing Engagemeny. I enjoyed both.

[LostSurprise]

Caught up a bit. 

 

Tam Lin~I loved the first 200-300 pages of this one. If you were a lit major, or just love the idea of people quoting and discussing plays, Renaissance literature, English poetry, this is a book to savor. It does a great job capturing that sense of your first year at college and meeting people with the same intellectual interests and wandering into and out of people's little obsessions, pet projects, and opinions. Classics are debated. Whole stanzas quoted at some point during most chapters. Weird college traditions are upheld. A strangely compelling ghost story.

 

I think the book would have been better if the author either focused on the lit-lovin', slightly mysterious college book she had or spent more time on the fairy tale ballad of the title. I don't mind getting to something slowly, but Dean did not actually get to the title tale until the last 40 pages of the book. That's right, the last 40 pages, out of 457. And she had to make some plot changes in the last 60 pages to get there. At that point the book should not be called Tam Lin. It felt like the story of Tam Lin was only mildly of interest. A way to close the unending chapters of Greek declension, Shakespeare debate, and Keats quoting. Recommended if you're a lit lover, but you have to love the journey, not the mystery. 

 

Finished some graphic novels too. I know, I know, I keep saying graphic novels are NMS, but this seems to be the year of conquering a certain number of critically acclaimed ones to either get comfortable with the genre or force myself to move on. Gene Yuen Lang has been a really interesting find this year, but he does YA graphic novels (no gore, graphic sex, or violent sex) so I've felt safe when reading them. There was a thread with graphic novel recommendations so I took a few I hadn't read from that to try out.

 

Fables is a noir series with characters from traditional fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and stories (big bad wolf, snow white, rose red, jack the giant killer, bluebeard, King Cole). The visual styles works with the noir story. I thought the mystery was really obvious but the essay back story was more interesting. Okay. I probably won't read anymore. 

 

Saga is kind of a space epic with 2 parents of different warring races bringing a child into the world while they're on the run. I did not expect to like this, at all. However, it manages to empower it's female characters (and not just sexually), speak realistically and humorously about birth, and surprise me with humor or imagination when I'm most likely to put it down. Very well balanced, and bonus points for introducing the subversiveness of books in changing people's ideas, even something as humble as a romance novel. Definitely intended to be an adult, not teenage boy, graphic novel. DH read this before me and we had some interesting discussion. 

 

A Knitter's Guide to Yarn was fairly helpful. I enjoyed the description of different fibers and their characteristics but further in I lost her on some points. Either I'm too new or she was a bit muddled in her writing. One of the best things was that she used the patterns as examples of different plies, dyes, and yarns. She did a good job referencing different points in the text section with the patterns so you see how the knowledge could be translated into practice when deciding what patterns and yarns should go together. She also did a lot of explaining of how to pull out fibers in the yarn and what to look for. If only she had a nice chart or infographic to tie it all together! Lots of info. Most of the patterns were a little too difficult for a newb like me but they were fun to read through. Handy wash section in the back. 

[Violet Crown]

Oops--forgot to add what is next on the reading agenda. I think that I'll start Mary Stewart's novel, The Gabriel Hounds, this after some discussion about favorite books by Mary Stewart a week or two ago.

 

I am also reading Jaroslav Hašek's short story collection Behind the Lines which we purchased in the Czech Republic. It is a beautiful little volume with illustrations by Jiri Grus and translated by Mark Corner.

 

Oo, that's the Hašek who wrote The Good Soldier Švejk, isn't it. Also on my TBR pile (okay, bookshelf). Have you read it? Is it as good as its reputation?