Book a Week in 2015 - Happy New Year

[Mom-ninja.]

We went to the library yesterday. It was a big day for my 6 yr old. Now that he is reading CVC words I told him he could get a library card. He was so excited and proud as he wrote his name on his card. He checked out a big stack of books (none of which he can read) with the biggest smile on his face. 

 

While browsing the shelves I noticed The Wee Free Men and of course had to check it out. Started it last night (I like it so far) and when I went to sleep I dreamed of little men with red hair.  :lol:  Now, I know who you are talking about when you mention Tiffany Aching. 

[Kareni]

Last night I finished the contemporary romance Broken Open (Hurley Brothers) by Lauren Dane which I enjoyed.  (Adult content.)

 

"Beyond passion. And beyond their control… 

Five years ago, Tuesday Eastwood's life collapsed and left her devastated. After an empty, nomadic existence, she's finally pieced her life back together in the small Oregon town of Hood River. Now Tuesday has everything sorted out. Just so long as men are kept for sex, and only sex… 

Then she met him. 

Musician and rancher Ezra Hurley isn't the man of Tuesday's dreams. He's a verboten fantasy—a man tortured by past addictions whose dark charisma and long, lean body promise delicious carnality. But this craving goes far beyond chemistry. It's primal. It's insatiable. And it won't be satisfied until they're both consumed, body and soul…"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[JennW in SoCal]

Mumto2:  Thank you for the crafty links!  I'd never heard of Liberty fabrics before.  I'm off in an hour to my monthly quilt guild meeting, conveniently held in the neighborhood library.

 

Jane and VC:  Out of Africa is one of my all time favorite books.  I read it after seeing the movie and remember thinking the prose is as gorgeous as the cinematography.  I should reread it, see what I think now that 20 some-odd years has passed!  

[shukriyya]

Since many of my friends here are also crafters I thought I would share a link to one of my favorite quilting blogshttp://veryberryhandmade.co.uk/2015/01/10/big-thoughts-for-2015/.

 

I have done a couple of her free patterns for small quilt projects for quick gifts. Easy with good directions. I can now imagine Jane, Jenn, and Shukriyya spending part of today exploring her quilt ideas!

 

Edited....I originally said linked to the book group. What I thought was a link wasn't. I went back to click the link and explore which didn't work. Enjoy the topic ideas. ;) http://burns-familyblog.blogspot.co.uk/p/26-books-challenge.html

 

Fun quilting blog, mumto2. Though I'm primarily a knitter I could happily spend a morning amidst mountains of textiles. And my mom was a fabulous quilter. Mumto2's seen this already but for other BaW quilters here's a pic of the last quilt she made. In it is fabric from my dad's lovely Saville Row shirts from the 70s, chintz from my grandmother's home and I think there's even a bit from a dress I wore as a child.

 

 

and the back

 

 

I've got a great sewing machine that dh gave me for my birthday one year but I've barely cracked it other than to hem pants for ds and dh. I've got a wonderful classic A-line skirt pattern, the kind that you can use with almost any fabric and that consistently looks great on any figure. So my current vision is to buy some lovely, tweedy wool in a muted mossy green and make up a skirt. Never mind that I've got a backup of three knitting projects awaiting my focus.

 

 

This morning her subject is books.....she just joined a 26 books in a year challenge and listed the fun topic starters that I thought some of you might enjoy. I particularly liked the Read a book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe. I have no idea what I would pick (the witch would happen for me without trying) but as a serious Narnia fan it sounds sooo lovely.

 

 

Her list has some wonderful ideas, doesn't it? Here it is cut and pasted for those who aren't link followers...

 

 

 

 

 

[shukriyya]

And I feel compelled to add that I finished 'Deerskin' yesterday and will be back with a report later. Am now out the door to a homeschool event.

[swellmomma]

Holy cow you guys are chatty cathies lol, I am worried that in the time it takes me to run ot the store and buy a loaf of bread thee will be another 300 posts to catch up on haha

[idnib]

Last night I read one of the best things I have ever read. I think it will stay with me forever. It's from Ulysses, and the one of the characters, Stephen Dedalus, is looking at a student of his who has come to him for help with a math problem. The student reminds Dedalus of himself. As a mother it just made me cry.

 

 

Ugly and futile: lean neck and tangled hair and a stain of ink, a snail's bed. Yet someone had loved him, borne him in her arms and in her heart. But for her the race of the world would have trampled him underfoot, a squashed boneless snail. She had loved his weak watery blood drained from her own.

 

[mommymilkies]

 

 

Her list has some wonderful ideas, doesn't it? Here it is cut and pasted for those who aren't link followers...

 

 

 

 

 

/snip

 

Now I have to decide between that one and this: http://modernmrsdarcy.com/2015/01/2015-reading-challenge/

 

Looks like I'll merge them a bit. :)

 

I finished I Shall Wear Midnight.  Loved it.  I was a bit nervous about reading it as I have been too anxious to handle something bad happening to the Feegles or Tiffany.  There was one scene that made me tear up about them, and I'm sure those who read will understand. *sniff*

 

I started Firefight and had to read a synopsis of Steelheart online because I forgot the details. :p

 

Books read in 2015:

1. I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett

[Uff Da!]

 

 

I've got a great sewing machine that dh gave me for my birthday one year but I've barely cracked it other than to hem pants for ds and dh. I've got a wonderful classic A-line skirt pattern, the kind that you can use with almost any fabric and that consistently looks great on any figure. So my current vision is to buy some lovely, tweedy wool in a muted mossy green and make up a skirt. Never mind that I've got a backup of three knitting projects awaiting my focus.

 

 

 

The quilt is lovely shukriyya.  I am always impressed how bits and pieces can come together to form something unified.  A line skirts are worth the effort. I made a bunch from high school until I was married and they are still stylish a decade or two later but, of course, the waists now rests up by my ribs......  

[mumto2]

Fun quilting blog, mumto2. Though I'm primarily a knitter I could happily spend a morning amidst mountains of textiles. And my mom was a fabulous quilter. Mumto2's seen this already but for other BaW quilters here's a pic of the last quilt she made. In it is fabric from my dad's lovely Saville Row shirts from the 70s, chintz from my grandmother's home and I think there's even a bit from a dress I wore as a child.

 

 

and the back

 

 

I've got a great sewing machine that dh gave me for my birthday one year but I've barely cracked it other than to hem pants for ds and dh. I've got a wonderful classic A-line skirt pattern, the kind that you can use with almost any fabric and that consistently looks great on any figure. So my current vision is to buy some lovely, tweedy wool in a muted mossy green and make up a skirt. Never mind that I've got a backup of three knitting projects awaiting my focus.

 

 

Her list has some wonderful ideas, doesn't it? Here it is cut and pasted for those who aren't link followers...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shukriyya thank you! As the long time BaW people know my computer abilities are lacking. Unless a familiy member helps links are the best I can do.

 

Now for Shukriyya's mom's quilt. Quilter's, especially those of you who belong to a quilt group (Jenn ;) ) , look at it very closely because it solves many issues I have with stacks of sample blocks as well as being incredible to look at. Her mom was a very gifted lady and pretty clever too.

 

Unless all the demonstrators in my group make a concious effort to stick to one size of block for each technique demonstrated if you actually do each block you end up with nothing to show for your year except a stack of pillows. One year we were required to only do 12 inch blocks. If you couldn't do it in 12 inch don't demonstrate. :lol: Her mom made strips of her different sizes. Sometimes adding fabric strips between horizontally in easy patterns ( checkerboard and triangles) equalling her long strip length I suspect. Coordinating single strips went down the rows of sample blocks. Also the log cabin border really pulls it all together (I plan to play with lover's knot which I like to work with and see what effect I can get). The big thing here was she was clever enough to keep her colour palette constant which produced beauty.

 

Shukriyya posting this picture today gave me a bit of a chuckle and a reminder of last years goals. After studying these pictures and plotting a similar endeavour, dd and I went to our patchwork meeting (sbuject Hawaiian quilting) with our solid and pattern in colours that we will never make a whole quilt out of. Dd had a beautiful lime green and fushia combo of which we own enough for a pillowsham. I had hunter green and rose which I like but need to pull my fabric to figure out if that is the path to a full size quilt someday. For some odd reason neither us us cut although we both plan to try it.

[TeacherZee]

Lovely quilt!

 

I finished my second book today, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This is a re-read and a comfort read.

[Lady Florida.]

Shukriyya, Those quilts are lovely. I love quilts that are made of memories. 

 

Swellmomma - Try to remember this was an unusually long thread. Robin will start a new one tomorrow that will only go for a week. 

[guilfordlake]

I can finally report that I've finished something :)  Not a book, but a short story.  I have Moriarty by Andrew Horowitz on hold at the library and so in anticipation, I'm rereading some of the Sherlock stories as recommended in this review.  I finished "The Final Problem" last night and hopefully today I'll get through "The Empty House".

 

Sherlock Holmes... :)

[TeacherZee]

Whoops...accidentally bought three books between yesterday. Luckily two were free and one was a pre-order that is due out in August

 

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen

 

I want to know, is it summer yet? (we just got at least 20cm of snow dumped on us in less than 12 hours so I am going to say no). So many books in series I read that are due out in the summer. Well at least next month the next In Death book comes out.

[Robin M]

Have you all heard of the Austen Project involving the re imagining of Emma by Alexander McCall Smith and 5 other Austen Books. Looks interesting.

 

 

Swellmomma - things will hopefully calm down in the next couple weeks and the threads will only be a week long making it easier to read.  Maybe, kind of, sorta depends. We can get quite verbose, especially when shooting off on rabbit trails.

 

 

I finished Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing and my brain is full of all kinds of ideas.  Plus now I want to reread Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451.  Did you know he wrote the screen play for the 1956 version Moby Dick?  Learn something knew.  Now to find it.  Speaking of rabbit trails, he suggested checking out Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer and guess what was a dusty book on my shelves.  Yep!  Alrighty.  Enough procrastination. Off to write tomorrow's blog  post.

[mumto2]

Have you all heard of the Austen Project involving the re imagining of Emma by Alexander McCall Smith and 5 other Austen Books. Looks interesting.

 

 

Swellmomma - things will hopefully calm down in the next couple weeks and the threads will only be a week long making it easier to read. Maybe, kind of, sorta depends. We can get quite verbose, especially when shooting off on rabbit trails.

 

 

I finished Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing and my brain is full of all kinds of ideas. Plus now I want to reread Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451. Did you know he wrote the screen play for the 1956 version Moby Dick? Learn something knew. Now to find it. Speaking of rabbit trails, he suggested checking out Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer and guess what was a dusty book on my shelves. Yep! Alrighty. Enough procrastination. Off to write tomorrow's blog post.

I started Val McDermid's contribution to the Austen Projecthttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/19/jane-austen-northanger-abbey-val-mcdermidlast summer. I wasn't aware of the Austen project and had checked out what I thought was a police thriller with a clever title. Not bad, just not what I wanted to read right then. Long list of holds behind me so I let it go. Now I am curious.......

 

I think the 1950's version for Moby Dick is on Amazon Prime for free here, I know an old version is.

 

I don't think we have ever had a 17 page thread before. We are prone to rabbit trails but 17 pages is really long.

[TeacherZee]

Have you all heard of the Austen Project involving the re imagining of Emma by Alexander McCall Smith and 5 other Austen Books. Looks interesting.

 

 

Swellmomma - things will hopefully calm down in the next couple weeks and the threads will only be a week long making it easier to read. Maybe, kind of, sorta depends. We can get quite verbose, especially when shooting off on rabbit trails.

 

 

I finished Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing and my brain is full of all kinds of ideas. Plus now I want to reread Something Wicked This Way Comes and Fahrenheit 451. Did you know he wrote the screen play for the 1956 version Moby Dick? Learn something knew. Now to find it. Speaking of rabbit trails, he suggested checking out Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer and guess what was a dusty book on my shelves. Yep! Alrighty. Enough procrastination. Off to write tomorrow's blog post.

That was NOT. NICE. Northanger Abbey is my favorite Austen and the re-imaging, at least in part takes place in my favorite city in the world. I was trying to not buy books. *pouts*

[Violet Crown]

Holy cow you guys are chatty cathies lol, I am worried that in the time it takes me to run ot the store and buy a loaf of bread thee will be another 300 posts to catch up on haha

I think it's a combination of (1) first week of the year; (2) extra days on the week; and (3) multiquote problems requiring multiple reply posts.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I think it's a combination of (1) first week of the year; (2) extra days on the week; and (3) multiquote problems requiring multiple reply posts.

 

and all us newbies swelling your ranks!   It's been a fun 10 days, I'm glad to be participating.  I have to apologize to all of my friends on goodreads, y'all are probably tired of seeing updates - my list-maker's soul was fed by entering all the significant books I've read over the last 5 years into goodreads this weekend.  I'm done, really.  I think.  :huh:

 

It was fun.  :001_wub:

[shukriyya]

I've had a glorious afternoon all to myself. Heaven. Dh came to spell me off for the afternoon session of ds's homeschool event. I arrived home chilled and happily anticipating a hot shower and several uninterrupted hours in which to read, drink tea, eat chocolate, tidy up and surf. It's been marvelous. And I even managed to get a full review of 'Deerskin' up on my GR page. A couple of books ago I read a very well executed review of I am Livia and I realized there's an art to writing a good review. It's a capacity that has eluded me so this year, in an effort to discover just what makes a good review, I'm aspiring to properly review at least half of the books I read.

 

I'm onto book two now, The Limits of Enchantment by Graham Joyce, an author I discovered last year. And at 3/4 of the way through, I'm thoroughly enjoying David Whyte's What to Remember When Waking in audio form.

 

Robin, Alexander McCall Smith is a favorite of mine for his Isabel Dalhousie series. I'm curious about his Emma. Anyone here read it?

 

And thanks for all the quilt compliments, my mom would have been so touched by all your appreciation. :001_wub:

[Mnemosyne]

I just finished reading The Emperor's Blades by Brian Staveley. Very good for his first book, looking forward to the sequel.

 

YTD: http://www.evernote.com/l/AAfhpyid4r9AKbuW7hQ-n5OsFJY-UEXcRdU/

[shukriyya]

This looks fun for those taking a medieval focus this year. Too bad it's only England.

[Jane in NC]

This looks fun for those taking a medieval focus this year. Too bad it's only England.

I read the author's guide to Elizabethan England and found it to be a fun romp.

[Pod's mum]

Well finally put aside part reads and finished a shorty, an adolescent read that I gave dd and she loved and was pressing me to read.

John Christopher, White Mountain. It is part of a series so now I'll probably have to go through the others. As you do  :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tripods

I wasn't particularly engaged in parts but I needed to just get back in and finish a novel. My current part reads are all non-fiction.

 

So I started another non-fiction, unearthed during the mammoth 'Sort and Shelve of 2015'.

It is one of my brittle, yellowing Pelican Books, A Short History of English Literature, B. IFOR EVANS,1940. I'm pleased to find the writing has remained fresh and crisp in spite of the pages.

The blurb for the book is, "The precision and lucidity with which he evaluautes the periods and varieties of our literature expresses themselves with an economy of language which enables him to cover the wide field without skimming."

Thankfully the author, unlike this reviewer, does write, "to the classical model, as brief as lucid".

I'm three chapters in and now want to pick at some of his recommendations of early English poets that I've largely skirted.

See if I can keep going and not keep adding to my part-reads.

[Pod's mum]

Thanks also to the promotion, early in this epic thread of Goodreads and librarything.

I've ordered the scanner thingy from librarything(Y) to finally get that started. $15 US, including postage from US to Australia.

We've even given dd an email address of her own so she can start her own Goodread reading list. I couldn't see how to open two accounts with from one email and decided she's old enough to have her own.

She's already several books ahead of schedule of her 400 books goal for 2015.

[Nan in Mass]

I finished Sense and Sensibility, and also Bone: La grande course. I guess I have accidentally met the Austen and the translated goals, wildly off schedule and half backwards lol. Some of you may know the Bone book as The Great Cow Race.

 

I also have now played at least 20 games of 7 Wonders. We still like it, even our persnickety one who has studied some game theory. I can tell you that it is perfectly possible to win while completely ignoring the military aspect and just taking the losses. You can even win repeatedly this way. The half hour play time estimate is about right, once you know what you are doing. A tip - if you can,t figure out the English directions, try the French ones. The English translation is not good.

 

Concept was the other popular clan game this Christmas season. The less strategically-minded played that a number of times. I stuck with 7 Wonders (despite most definitely not being strategic) soI can,t tell you how it is but my clan plays lots of games and liked this one, so I suspect it is fun.

 

Nan

[MaeFlowers]

My reads for the first week are:

 

1. Prophesy by S.J. Parris
2. Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
4. Aeschylus, The Oresteia
5. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant

I am working through the A-to-Z Challenge but can't find anything for the letter C. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think I need something light, fun and modern this week. I am also planning on picking The Illiad back up. I read it for a while then have to put it down. Maybe, maybe,  I will finish it someday.

[Mnemosyne]

My reads for the first week are:

 

1. Prophesy by S.J. Parris
2. Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
4. Aeschylus, The Oresteia
5. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant

I am working through the A-to-Z Challenge but can't find anything for the letter C. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think I need something light, fun and modern this week. I am also planning on picking The Illiad back up. I read it for a while then have to put it down. Maybe, maybe,  I will finish it someday.

 

Crime and Punishment

Canterbury Tales

Catch 22

Catcher in the Rye

The Cave and the Light

City of Bones

City of Ember

A Clockwork Orange

A College of Magics

Complete Works of Plato/Shakespeare/etc

The Crown Conspiracy

Crown Duel

Count of Monte Cristo

Crash of the Titans

 

Disclaimer - haven't read them all. Just going through my Goodreads list. :p

[idnib]

 

I am working through the A-to-Z Challenge but can't find anything for the letter C. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think I need something light, fun and modern this week. I am also planning on picking The Illiad back up. I read it for a while then have to put it down. Maybe, maybe,  I will finish it someday.

 

I looked at our shelves and all I can come up with is Clear and Present Danger (Clancy) or The Catcher in the Rye.  :D

[Cleopatra]

601 new posts since the last time I was here??? You have all been busy. I don't think I can catch up with this week. 

 

I know what you mean!  You guys are a very chatty group, which is wonderful!

 

This week I finished Gulliver's Travels and René Descartes' Meditations.  Swift's satire was brilliant, but he certainly had a dark view of society.  My brain almost exploded with Descartes, but I forced myself to understand (or vaguely understand) what he was saying, but when I got to the objections and replies, I was exhausted and didn't put in as much effort.  I loved both reads.  I enjoyed Swift's work much better than Voltaire's Candide, so my love of satire is restored!  I didn't expect to be interested in philosophy but I am.  Fancy that!

[Mnemosyne]

I know what you mean!  You guys are a very chatty group, which is wonderful!

 

This week I finished Gulliver's Travels and René Descartes' Meditations.  Swift's satire was brilliant, but he certainly had a dark view of society.  My brain almost exploded with Descartes, but I forced myself to understand (or vaguely understand) what he was saying, but when I got to the objections and replies, I was exhausted and didn't put in as much effort.  I loved both reads.  I enjoyed Swift's work much better than Voltaire's Candide, so my love of satire is restored!  I didn't expect to be interested in philosophy but I am.  Fancy that!

 

If you haven't, you should check out Seneca, Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius. I love Stoic philosophy very much.

[Stacia]

I am working through the A-to-Z Challenge but can't find anything for the letter C. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think I need something light, fun and modern this week.

 

How about C ( ;) ) by Tom McCarthy? I read it a few years ago & really loved it. (It was shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize.) I wouldn't qualify it as light, but it is interesting, well-written, & modern.

 

 

C has been shortlisted for the 2010 Man Booker Prize.

 

The acclaimed author of Remainder, which Zadie Smith hailed as “one of the great English novels of the past ten years,â€gives us his most spectacularly inventive novel yet.

 

Opening in England at the turn of the twentieth century, C is the story of a boy named Serge Carrefax, whose father spends his time experimenting with wireless communication while running a school for deaf children. Serge grows up amid the noise and silence with his brilliant but troubled older sister, Sophie: an intense sibling relationship that stays with him as he heads off into an equally troubled larger world.

 

After a fling with a nurse at a Bohemian spa, Serge serves in World War I as a radio operator for reconnaissance planes. When his plane is shot down, Serge is taken to a German prison camp, from which he escapes. Back in London, he’s recruited for a mission to Cairo on behalf of the shadowy Empire Wireless Chain. All of which eventually carries Serge to a fitful—and perhaps fateful—climax at the bottom of an Egyptian tomb . . .

 

Only a writer like Tom McCarthy could pull off a story with this effortless historical breadth, psychological insight, and postmodern originality.

 

A New York Times Review. And a Chicago Tribune review. (The reviews do contain spoilers.)

[Dicentra]

Thanks also to the promotion, early in this epic thread of Goodreads and librarything.

I've ordered the scanner thingy from librarything(Y) to finally get that started. $15 US, including postage from US to Australia.

We've even given dd an email address of her own so she can start her own Goodread reading list. I couldn't see how to open two accounts with from one email and decided she's old enough to have her own.

She's already several books ahead of schedule of her 400 books goal for 2015.

 

I wasn't sure if the CueCat would work for other sites other than LibraryThing.  Tried it on GoodReads the other day - be danged if it didn't work!  Works on Amazon as well. :)

 

If anyone has a spare $15 and needs to enter lots of books into a website, the CueCat is worth its weight in gold.

[Cleopatra]

If you haven't, you should check out Seneca, Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius. I love Stoic philosophy very much.

 

Thanks for the tips!  I received Marcus Aurelius' Meditations for Christmas and have it planned for later in the year.  I've had Seneca recommended but it's not often I've heard of Epictetus.  I'm impressed with your breadth of reading!

[JennyD]

 

Chrysalis Academy, here's that podcast I mentioned.  It was Andrew Solomon, on The Moth.  

 

http://themoth.org/posts/stories/the-refugees

 

It's probably obvious from the subject matter (aftermath of Khmer Rouge genocide) but I feel I should mention that he talks about some absolutely horrifying things. The woman at the heart of the story is truly extraordinary, though, and I'm glad I listened to the podcast.  

 

 

[shukriyya]

I know what you mean!  You guys are a very chatty group, which is wonderful!

 

This week I finished Gulliver's Travels and René Descartes' Meditations.  Swift's satire was brilliant, but he certainly had a dark view of society.  My brain almost exploded with Descartes, but I forced myself to understand (or vaguely understand) what he was saying, but when I got to the objections and replies, I was exhausted and didn't put in as much effort.  I loved both reads.  I enjoyed Swift's work much better than Voltaire's Candide, so my love of satire is restored!  I didn't expect to be interested in philosophy but I am.  Fancy that!

 

Oy, that brought back memories of our French lit class. We read 'Candide', en francais I might add, as well as Moliere's 'Le Malade Imaginaire' and 'Tartuffe'. Imagine a group of 16 year olds, full of all the angst and energy and great swoops of mood that come with that age, being made to read this in french under the tutelage of a very dry instructor. C'etait un vrai slog!

[Cleopatra]

Oy, that brought back memories of our French lit class. We read 'Candide', en francais I might add, as well as Moliere's 'Le Malade Imaginaire' and 'Tartuffe'. Imagine a group of 16 year olds, full of all the angst and energy and great swoops of mood that come with that age, being made to read this in french under the tutelage of a very dry instructor. C'etait un vrai slog!

 

What is it with these dry French instructors?  I had to slog through Le Petit Prince and my instructor was sooooo serious.  Sadly, my French is at the level of Le Petit Nicolas nowadays.  One of my goals is to begin reading in it again, to improve it but somehow I don't seem to get around to it.  I managed La Parure (The Necklace) by Maupassant last year, but so far, that's been about it.

[MaeFlowers]

How about C ( ;) ) by Tom McCarthy? I read it a few years ago & really loved it. (It was shortlisted for the 2010 Booker Prize.) I wouldn't qualify it as light, but it is interesting, well-written, & modern.

 

 

 

A New York Times Review. And a Chicago Tribune review. (The reviews do contain spoilers.)

 

This story sounds much like All the LIght We Cannot See. Odd. I have added it to my list but I have a hard time with stories about concentration camps.

ETA: Oops! I forgot to say thank you to everyone for the recommendations. I am thinking probably The Crown Conspiracy or a reread of Catcher in the Rye. It was one of my favorites when I read it in high school. I kind of curious to see what I think of it 25 years later.

[Clear Creek]

I'm a little late to the party, and I make no promises to see this through the entire year, but I am here and I will make my best attempt. :001_smile:

 

Last year my goal every time I visited the library was to check out one biography and one non-fiction along with my regular assortment of fiction. I have enjoyed it so much that I am holding myself to it again this year. At least half of what I checked out in those two categories was about WWII, so perhaps this year I will expand my horizons a little. Or not. :D I have not yet run out of books at my library on the subject!

 

Read so far this year...

1. Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (I needed to read a book about WWII in the Pacific theater!)

2. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (yes, it was my first time!)

3. Without a Trace by Colleen Coble

[Stacia]

This story sounds much like All the LIght We Cannot See. Odd. I have added it to my list but I have a hard time with stories about concentration camps.

 

It doesn't have concentration camps in it. The character is in WWI & does get captured, but he escapes. So, there is very little about him being a prisoner during the first world war. (I don't remember anything distressing about it in that respect.)

 

[Nan in Mass]

What is it with these dry French instructors? I had to slog through Le Petit Prince and my instructor was sooooo serious. Sadly, my French is at the level of Le Petit Nicolas nowadays. One of my goals is to begin reading in it again, to improve it but somehow I don't seem to get around to it. I managed La Parure (The Necklace) by Maupassant last year, but so far, that's been about it.

I am trying to read some in French this year, too. So far I have read Bone, which doesn't really count, and one page of Le parfum de la Dame en noir (in Overdrive). Not exactly stunning progress grin.

 

Nan

[Lady Florida.]

Last night dh had to work overnight for the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch, ds was away on a short theme park trip, and I was alone all night. I was so enjoying the As You Wish audiobook, that I decided I had to watch The Princess Bride. It's such a fun movie even when watching it all by myself. :D

[Pod's mum]

My reads for the first week are:

 

1. Prophesy by S.J. Parris
2. Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
4. Aeschylus, The Oresteia
5. Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant

I am working through the A-to-Z Challenge but can't find anything for the letter C. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think I need something light, fun and modern this week. I am also planning on picking The Illiad back up. I read it for a while then have to put it down. Maybe, maybe,  I will finish it someday.

 

Here's some C's I am happy to recommend...

John Wyndham's The Chrysalids.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chrysalids

Frank B Gilbreth Jr's Cheaper by the Dozen

Chaim Potok's The Chosen

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time  (Modernish)

Hellene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road (appropriate for this thread)

If you stretch the C a bit you have Suetonius's rather earthy The Twelve Caesars

For a bit more demanding reads I would add...

Louis ds Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin

Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, starting with Clea to shake it up a bit

Robert Graves' I, Claudius and Claudius the God

and of course, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

 

Yes I am getting a kick out of being able to just go to shelves and find books. Very novel, he he he.

 

[shukriyya]

I am trying to read some in French this year, too. So far I have read Bone, which doesn't really count, and one page of Le parfum de la Dame en noir (in Overdrive). Not exactly stunning progress grin.

 

Nan

 

Your post and Cleopatra's experience prompted me to look up one of my favorite poems from school by Charles Baudelaire...

 

L'invitation au voyage

 

Mon enfant, ma soeur,

Songe à la douceur

D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble!

Aimer à loisir,

Aimer et mourir

Au pays qui te ressemble!

Les soleils mouillés

De ces ciels brouillés

Pour mon esprit ont les charmes

Si mystérieux

De tes traîtres yeux,

Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

Des meubles luisants,

Polis par les ans,

Décoreraient notre chambre;

Les plus rares fleurs

Mêlant leurs odeurs

Aux vagues senteurs de l'ambre,

Les riches plafonds,

Les miroirs profonds,

La splendeur orientale,

Tout y parlerait

À l'âme en secret

Sa douce langue natale.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

Vois sur ces canaux

Dormir ces vaisseaux

Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;

C'est pour assouvir

Ton moindre désir

Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.

— Les soleils couchants

Revêtent les champs,

Les canaux, la ville entière,

D'hyacinthe et d'or;

Le monde s'endort

Dans une chaude lumière.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

— Charles Baudelaire

 

I can remember luxuriating in some of those lines...'songe a la douceur' and the refrain which is so lovely, 'la, tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute/Luxe, calme et volupte' and a few others. My best friend and I would give in to moments of quoting this poem when we were in particularly effulgent states. This page offers four different translations which is fascinating for the opportunity to see how each translator worked with the images and tone of the poem. Interestingly the one that felt most resonant to me is the one that adheres the least technically to the poem and it's by Edna St. Vincent Millay. But I love the way she's communicated the lush, dreamy, feeling that unfolds across the page.

[Cleopatra]

I am trying to read some in French this year, too. So  I have read Bone, which doesn't really count, and one page of Le parfum de la Dame en noir (in Overdrive). Not exactly stunning progress grin.

 

Nan

 

Best of luck to you!  I found that modern French novels, such as thrillers for example, aren't that difficult to read, but then again they can be not particularly well-written too.  I'm going to stick with Le Petit Nicolas and I definitely have another Maupassant short story, Le Horla, scheduled for this year.  

 

I have a blogging friend who spent a year struggling through French books and now she reads them nearly as well as in English **** envy ****  If you spend the time you see the results ...... now I just need to figure out where to get more time .....  ;)

[Cleopatra]

Your post and Cleopatra's experience prompted me to look up one of my favorite poems from school by Charles Baudelaire...

 

L'invitation au voyage

 

Mon enfant, ma soeur,

Songe à la douceur

D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble!

Aimer à loisir,

Aimer et mourir

Au pays qui te ressemble!

Les soleils mouillés

De ces ciels brouillés

Pour mon esprit ont les charmes

Si mystérieux

De tes traîtres yeux,

Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

Des meubles luisants,

Polis par les ans,

Décoreraient notre chambre;

Les plus rares fleurs

Mêlant leurs odeurs

Aux vagues senteurs de l'ambre,

Les riches plafonds,

Les miroirs profonds,

La splendeur orientale,

Tout y parlerait

À l'âme en secret

Sa douce langue natale.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

Vois sur ces canaux

Dormir ces vaisseaux

Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;

C'est pour assouvir

Ton moindre désir

Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.

— Les soleils couchants

Revêtent les champs,

Les canaux, la ville entière,

D'hyacinthe et d'or;

Le monde s'endort

Dans une chaude lumière.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

— Charles Baudelaire

 

I can remember luxuriating in some of those lines...'songe a la douceur' and the refrain which is so lovely, 'la, tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute/Luxe, calme et volupte' and a few others. My best friend and I would give in to moments of quoting this poem when we were in particularly effulgent states. This page offers four different translations which is fascinating for the opportunity to see how each translator worked with the images and tone of the poem. Interestingly the one that felt most resonant to me is the one that adheres the least technically to the poem and it's by Edna St. Vincent Millay. But I love the way she's communicated the lush, dreamy, feeling that unfolds across the page.

 

Thanks so much for sharing this!  I did a language reading challenge last summer and it was so interesting to compare translations.  Actually, often it was rather sad to see how much is lost in translation, especially with poems.  The different translations of this poem are excellent examples of what translators can choose to throw into relief or leave back in the shade. 

[mumto2]

My reads for the first week are:

 

• Prophesy by S.J. Parris
• Hard-Boiled Wonderland & the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
• Aeschylus, The Oresteia
• Bel-Ami by Guy de Maupassant

I am working through the A-to-Z Challenge but can't find anything for the letter C. Does anyone have any recommendations? I think I need something light, fun and modern this week. I am also planning on picking The Illiad back up. I read it for a while then have to put it down. Maybe, maybe, I will finish it someday.

Since you enjoyed Prophecy I am going to recommend a couple of lighter C's

 

The Coroner's Lunch https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/243353.The_Coroner_s_Lunch is the first in a series set in Laos post Vietnam War. I read it last year when doing my geography challenge. Basically it is about an elderly doctor who finds himself appointed as National Coroner of Laos by the Communist regime with no training available but with a strong desire to do a good job. Fiction but fascinating. One of the series that I am slowly working my way through.

 

Cut to the Quick https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/351385.Cut_to_the_Quick by Kate Ross which is the first in a really good historical mystery series which a few BaWers have read in the past.

[Mnemosyne]

It's crazy how much quicker I read when I'm reading fiction. 2 more books completed in 2 days - over 800 pages total. Then again, I haven't done anything but read these last two days, so that may not be something to brag about. ;)

 

http://www.evernote.com/l/AAfhpyid4r9AKbuW7hQ-n5OsFJY-UEXcRdU/(YTD)

[Nan in Mass]

Your post and Cleopatra's experience prompted me to look up one of my favorite poems from school by Charles Baudelaire...

 

L'invitation au voyage

 

Mon enfant, ma soeur,

Songe à la douceur

D'aller là-bas vivre ensemble!

Aimer à loisir,

Aimer et mourir

Au pays qui te ressemble!

Les soleils mouillés

De ces ciels brouillés

Pour mon esprit ont les charmes

Si mystérieux

De tes traîtres yeux,

Brillant à travers leurs larmes.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

Des meubles luisants,

Polis par les ans,

Décoreraient notre chambre;

Les plus rares fleurs

Mêlant leurs odeurs

Aux vagues senteurs de l'ambre,

Les riches plafonds,

Les miroirs profonds,

La splendeur orientale,

Tout y parlerait

À l'âme en secret

Sa douce langue natale.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

Vois sur ces canaux

Dormir ces vaisseaux

Dont l'humeur est vagabonde;

C'est pour assouvir

Ton moindre désir

Qu'ils viennent du bout du monde.

— Les soleils couchants

Revêtent les champs,

Les canaux, la ville entière,

D'hyacinthe et d'or;

Le monde s'endort

Dans une chaude lumière.

 

Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté,

Luxe, calme et volupté.

 

— Charles Baudelaire

 

I can remember luxuriating in some of those lines...'songe a la douceur' and the refrain which is so lovely, 'la, tout n'est qu'ordre et beaute/Luxe, calme et volupte' and a few others. My best friend and I would give in to moments of quoting this poem when we were in particularly effulgent states. This page offers four different translations which is fascinating for the opportunity to see how each translator worked with the images and tone of the poem. Interestingly the one that felt most resonant to me is the one that adheres the least technically to the poem and it's by Edna St. Vincent Millay. But I love the way she's communicated the lush, dreamy, feeling that unfolds across the page.

Years ago, when it was wading laboriously through Harry Potter inFrench, I remember telling my children that it was like eating dessert when you,d had Novocain. Usually, French poetry still gives me that feeling, but this poem was luscious! I ove poems that sound well, not just express ideas well.

 

Remind me, though, never to let anybody translate anything I have written! Yikes!

 

Nan

[shukriyya]

Thanks so much for sharing this!  I did a language reading challenge last summer and it was so interesting to compare translations.  Actually, often it was rather sad to see how much is lost in translation, especially with poems.  The different translations of this poem are excellent examples of what translators can choose to throw into relief or leave back in the shade. 

 

All the talk of reading non-English books in the language they were written has me wondering whether my rarely-used French would be up to the task. One book that stood out for me in my teen years was Camus' 'L'Etranger'. Were I to take up the challenge of reading a non-English book in its original language that might be the one.