Book a Week in 2015 - BW7

[Robin M]

Happy Sunday, dear hearts.   Today is the start of week 7 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 - She Walks In Beauty:  Keeping it simple this week, giving your wishlists and pocket books a break  :laugh:  and highlighting Lord Byron's Poem.

 

 

She walks in beauty, like the night

   Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

   Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

   Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

 

One shade the more, one ray the less,

   Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

   Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

   How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

 

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

   So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

   But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

   A heart whose love is innocent!

 

 

:wub: :wub: :wub:
 

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

History of the Medieval World - Part Two - Fractures

Chapter 9 Excommunicated (Pp 63 - 71)

 

 

 

What are you reading this week?

 

 

 

 

 

Link to week 6

 

 

 

 

[Robin M]

Bringing over Karen's post from last week.

I don't typically listen to audio books, but I know I've heard several of you mention listening to books from Audible.    Here's a free offering (until March 9).

 

FREE: Classic Love Poems

• Narrated by: Richard Armitage

"For anyone who's in love - or hopes to be - what greater celebration could there be than to hear the world's greatest love poetry read lovingly by Richard Armitage? With 15 poems by William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and more, Classic Love Poems is a listening treat for Valentine's Day - or any day.

Included in this collection are:

• "How do I love thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• "Sonnet 116" by William Shakespeare
• "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe
• "To Be One with Each Other" by George Eliot
• "Maud" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
• "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell
• "Bright Star" by John Keats
• "Love's Philosophy" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
• "Meeting at Night" by Robert Browning
• "The Dream" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
• "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe
• "I carry your heart" by e. e. cummings
• "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron
• "Give All to Love" by Ralph Waldo Emerson"

Regards,

 

 

 

[Robin M]

Continuing with our flufferton romance theme this week:

 

10 Best Historical Romance Novels from Publisher's Weekly

 

Mozart's Magnificent Love Letter to His Wife from Brain pickings

 

Check out Heroes and Heartbreakers The Swoonies: 2015: An Epic Couples battle - vote for your favorite couples in Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical, and Romantic Suspense stories,

 

And what would our day be like without a little beefcake

 

 

[Stacia]

Yesterday, I read The Duppy by Anthony C. Winkler, published by Akashic Books. A duppy [ghost] relates ribald & amusing anecdotes of Jamaican heaven. (Fwiw: Not for the easily offended, especially those who take umbrage at ribald jokes & descriptions of God &/or heaven.)
 

**The Duppy is available for only $2.99 until the end of February wherever e-books are sold!

Baps, a Jamaican shopkeeper, drops dead unexpectedly one Saturday morning and finds himself being transported to heaven via a crowded minibus. Everything about Paradise that he had been raised to expect and believe, he finds to be utterly and completely wrong. For one thing, Paradise suspiciously resembles Jamaica. Baps has much to learn: about the afterlife, about God, about the distortions of established religion, and ultimately about humanity . . . With his characteristic outrageousness, and with more than a hint of postmodern playfulness, Winkler defies taboos and subverts conventional thinking in this entertaining, thought-provoking, and ultimately uplifting novel.

It was an entertaining, quick read, imo. I read another of Winkler's books (The Lunatic) a couple of years ago & quite enjoyed it. His books do seem to make the most Jamaican patois, raunchy humor, & outlook on life. Looking at Winkler's books on the Akashic Books site, it looks like ebook versions (nook, ibook, kobo, kindle) of his books are just $2.99 for the month of February.

It's kind of interesting because a year or two ago, I read Sweet Dreams by Michael Frayn, another book about heaven/the afterlife. In Sweet Dreams, God is an unassuming Englishman & it was just a lovely, humorous, charming, understated book. The Duppy is similar, with an overall happy vibe, but more of the laid-back, go with the flow, raucous atmosphere one might expect in Jamaica. They might make a fun duo of books to read together.

Now, I've gone back to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte in an attempt to finish it this month. Though I like it well enough, I keep thinking of the tiny print, fairly large number of pages (about 500), & looking at the fact that I'm just now to page 150.... And, I keep thinking, 'What on Earth is there to say that is going to take up that many more pages???' :lol: :blush:

----------------------
2015 Books Read:
Africa:

• Rue du Retour by Abdellatif Laâbi, trans. from the French by Jacqueline Kaye, pub. by Readers International. 4 stars. Morocco. (Poetic paean to political prisoners worldwide by one who was himself in prison for “crimes of opinionâ€. Explores not only incarceration but also readjusting to a ‘normal’ world after torture & release.)
• Nigerians in Space by Deji Bryce Olukotum, pub. by Unnamed Press. 4 stars. South Africa & Nigeria. (Scientists lured back home in a ‘brain gain’ plan to start up Nigerian space program. But, things go awry. Is it legit, a scam, or something more sinister?)

Asia:

• The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami, a Borzoi book pub. by Alfred A. Knopf.  4 stars. Japan. BaW January author challenge. (Creepy campfire style story; thought-provoking ending made me rethink the entire story.)
• The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire by Jack Weatherford, pub. by Crown Publishers. 4 stars. Mongolia. (Non-fiction. Even with gaps, fascinating pieces of lost &/or censored history.)

Caribbean:

• The Duppy by Anthony C. Winkler, pub. by Akashic Books. 3 stars. Jamaica. (A duppy [ghost] relates ribald & amusing anecdotes of Jamaican heaven.)

Europe:

• The Affinity Bridge by George Mann, a Tor book pub. by Tom Doherty Associates. 3 stars. England. (Entertaining steampunk with likeable characters.)
• Extraordinary Renditions by Andrew Ervin, pub. by Coffee House Press. 4 stars. Hungary. (Triptych of stories in Budapest touching on the Holocaust, racism, corruption, the power of music,…)

Middle East:

• The Jerusalem File by Joel Stone, pub. by Europa editions. 2 stars. Israel. (Noir detective tale re: jealousy. Ambiguous, unsatisfactory ending.)
• Goat Days by Benyamin, trans. from Malayalam by Joseph Koyipally, pub. by Penguin Books. 3 stars. Saudi Arabia. (Simple tale of enslaved Indian forced to herd goats in the Saudi Arabian desert.)

North America:

• The Good Lord Bird by James McBride, pub. by Riverhead Books (Penguin Group). 5 stars. USA. (Sharp satire, historical fiction & folly, standing on top of heart, soul... & freedom.)

 

[Robin M]

But Robin, what are you reading?  Oh, did I forget to mention that.  :lol:

 

Currently reading J.D. Robb's Obsession in Death (So very good) and Listening to audiobook Devon Monk's Magic in the Shadows.  Not at the same time, mind you.

 

Added a couple more writing craft books to the stacks for online writing classes which start next week -  Narrative Design by Madison Smart Bell and Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose by Constance Hale.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I've put almost everything else on hold and am completely absorbed by the book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen.  I've had a hard time putting it down. It's completely absorbing - kind of like a really well written, less melodramatic, up to date Hot Zone.  It was published in 2012, so before the current Ebola outbreak, but reading about the history of that disease since 1976 is fascinating - horribly so, of course, given current events.  The book is about zoonotic diseases in general, not just Ebola.  It's quite riveting.

 

Other than that, I'm still reading Pride & Prejudice, The Cave and the Light, and Friendly Persuasion on my own, From Then Till Now and The Castle of Llyr with the girls, listening to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, doing a chapter a day in The Harvard Classics in a Year and a chapter a week in HOTMW.  But really? I'm just reading Spillover.

 

Books of the 2015:

22. My Antonia - Willa Cather

21. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens - Jack Weatherford

20. Amsterdam - Ian McEwan

19. The Creation of Anne Boleyn - Susan Bordo

18. Girls on the Edge - Leonard Sax

17. Ancillary Sword - Ann Leckie

16. Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen

15. The Black Cauldron - Lloyd Alexander

14. 1984 - George Orwell

13. My Real Children - Jo Walton

12. The March of Folly - Barbara Tuchman

11. Day - Elie Wiesel

10. The House of the Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

9. The Wikkeling - Steven Aronson

8. Whole Earth Discipline - Stewart Brand

7. The Ghost-Feeler - Edith Wharton

6. Dawn - Elie Wiesel

5. The Strange Library - Haruki Murakami

4. Ancillary Justice - Anne Leckie

3. The Case of Comrade Tulayev - Victor Serge

2. Night - Elie Wiesel

1. The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

[Negin]

I read the 3rd book in The Edge Chronicles series - Midnight Over Sanctaphrax - 3 Stars - It’s not the book. It’s me. These days I seem to have a very difficult time focusing when it comes to certain types of books - classics, fantasy, and any fiction that’s not particularly engaging. I have to say that I’m disappointed in myself. This book, the third in the series was good. I would have enjoyed it far more if only I’d been able to focus. I’m debating whether to continue with the series or not. I’m not usually the series type (other than Harry Potter and the Ken Follett series). 

 

 

MY RATING SYSTEM

5 Stars

Fantastic, couldn't put it down

4 Stars

Really Good

3 Stars

Enjoyable

2 Stars

Just Okay – nothing to write home about

1 Star

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

[TeacherZee]

Well this week has not been conductive to reading. I didn't sleep late yesterday but I ended up taking a nap midday and then I mindlessly played computer games most of the day. However, in the evening things picked up on the reading front and I read some Northanger Abbey and then I started the first book in the Molly Murphy series by Rhys Bowen. I enjoyed her Royal Spyness series so I thought I would give this one a try and it hooked me in. I got quite a bit read yesterday and I plan to continue tonight. I also read a chapter in The History of the Medieval World, I am behind on that reading but hope to catch up week 8 when I am off. I also read a few pages in my Swedish history book and some more of Northanger Abbey today. I am  now done with half the book, and it is as deliciously snarky as I remember it.

 

This week I plan on finishing Northanger Abbey. And work on some blog posts.

 

1. The Child Catchers by Kathryn Joyce

2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

3. The Understatement of the Year by Sarina Bowen

4. The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen

5. The Year We Hid Away by Sarina Bowen

6. Blond Date by Sarina Bowen

7. A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

8. Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson

9. After the War is Over by Jennifer Robson

10. With Every Letter by Sarah Sundin

11. Falling from the Sky by Sarina Bowen

12. Obsession in Death by J.D. Robb

[Kareni]

... Listening to audiobook Devon Monk's Magic in the Shadows. 

 

I read several of Devon Monk's Allie Beckstrom books (perhaps to Magic in the Shadows or one further) and then stopped for some now unremembered reason; I may have to start again.  I just read and enjoyed the first book in her newest series, however, which is set in an entirely different world.  Readers of paranormal and/or fantasy books might also enjoy it.

 

House Immortal (A House Immortal Novel) by Devon Monk

 

"One hundred years ago, eleven powerful ruling Houses consolidated all of the world’s resources and authority into their own grasping hands. Only one power wasn’t placed under the command of a single House: the control over the immortal galvanized....

 

Matilda Case isn’t like most folk. In fact, she’s unique in the world, the crowning achievement of her father’s experiments, a girl pieced together from bits. Or so she believes, until Abraham Seventh shows up at her door, stitched with life thread just like her and insisting that enemies are coming to kill them all.

 

Tilly is one of thirteen incredible creations known as the galvanized, stitched together beings immortal and unfathomably strong. For a century, each House has fought for control over the galvanized. Now the Houses are also tangled in a deadly struggle for dominion over death—and Tilly and her kind hold the key to unlocking eternity

 

The secrets that Tilly must fight to protect are hidden within the very seams of her being. And to get the secrets, her enemies are willing to tear her apart piece by piece.…"

 

I'm now looking forward to reading the follow on book which is coming out next Month.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

Last night I also finished Robin D. Owens' Heart Fire; it's the thirteenth in a futuristic fantasy romance series.  I enjoyed it.  While it could probably stand alone, I'd recommend starting with the first book in the series.

 

"On the planet Celta, accepting a HeartMate can be the greatest challenge in the universe…

Antenn, an architect hired to build a cathedral in Druida City, dares not think of his HeartMate. Even though he yearns for her, he’s taken steps to ensure she will be forever unknown to him. After all, how could he, a commoner who grew up in the slums, the brother of a murderer, be worthy of any woman?

Tiana, a priestess, has her own fears about being a HeartMate. She's watched her friends struggle with such a stormy destiny. She's sure her HeartMate has never claimed her due to a terrible scandal involving her Family, and she's set aside hopes for love.

Antenn's gotten the commission of his life. The cathedral will make him famous, but more, it will last for ages and prove to others he can contribute to Celta...if the controversial structure isn't destroyed while being built. Tiana, too, is an integral part of this process, but the villain who wrecked her Family is ready with firebombs. Can they trust each other in dangerous circumstances to succeed...and to love?"

 

Regards,

Kareni

[idnib]

Unbelievably, I'm still keeping up with the goodreads schedule for Ulysses and just finished episode 12.

 

I should finish Everyman (Roth) by tomorrow night and am still really enjoying Pride and Prejudice. 

 

Everyman is a somewhat depressing book. OK, a really depressing book. It's about getting older, unfixable family mistakes, death. A real "feet of clay" book. It makes me think a lot about how we perceive our parents and how they really are as erring humans. And how our children perceive us. Sigh.

[Stacia]

My dh is a librarian at a big research library and they recently instituted Overdrive. So, I spent a chunk of time looking at what they have that I might like to read on my kindle. It's a small collection but it will only get bigger. Nice coincidence that dh is the supervisor of the people who select the ebooks and we often meet socially. DH trusts my tastes (says I am a born selector) and encouraged me to let the selector know what I think would make the collection stronger. My quest for world literary domination begins!

 

:laugh:

[Violet Crown]

Too many books and not enough reading time. Great Girl is trying to repair my sedentary ways and is forcing me out daily for Zombie Runs: this is an app that encourages you on your jog by occasionally sending zombies after you, away from which to sprint. I have been eaten every time so far. She says if there is a Zombie Apocalypse she'll scoop up Wee girl and wish me well.

 

And while not fleeing from the more-fit-than-me undead, I've been foolishly trying to read simultaneously:

 

James, The Golden Bowl

Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Selections from D. G. Rossetti (from The Pre-Raphaelites and Their Circle)

Edward Dent, Opera

J. Frank Dobie, Coronado's Children: Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest

 

The girls have delighted to hear tales of the fabled Lost San Saba Mine from the Dobie book, as it's somewhere just northwest of us. If it exists, and isn't (most likely) another thing Bowie made up to impress people with.

 

The opera book is an old yellowing Pelican on wartime-quality paper, originally costing, according to the cover, "nine pence." It's a very user-friendly history and guide to the opera, for nonmusicians like myself who are more familiar with conventional theater.

 

TeacherZee, I hope the chaos abates soon. Sounds awful.

[Stacia]

Violet Crown, I would have never, never, never, ever expected 'zombies' to show up in any post of yours!

 

:zombiechase:

 

:lol:

[mumto2]

I am currently finishing my second China Bayles mystery of the weekend. This is a great series by Susan Wittig Albert that I have been reading for many years. Here is a link to the author's websitehttp://www.abouthyme.com/China/index.shtmlin case anyone wants to explore. The main character is a former lawyer who moves to a small Texas town and opens a herb shop. Each chapter begans with an appropriate description of a herb. She always encounters a mystery usually with a murder. The characters are really well developed in this series, it has been nice to catch up with my friends. ;)

[Violet Crown]

Violet Crown, I would have never, never, never, ever expected 'zombies' to show up in any post of yours!

 

 

That's what having geeky teenagers will do for you. Oh how I tried to steer her toward the humanities....

[Jane in NC]

Reading short stories by John Buchan, I encountered the Scottish term whigmaleerie which I then Googled. It means contraption--which somehow makes sense, yes? In turn I was led to the following poem:

 

A Whigmaleerie

There was an Auchtergaven mouse
(I canna mind his name)
Wha met in wi' a hirplin louse
Sair trauchl'd for her hame.

'My friend, I'm hippit; and nae doot
Ye'll heist me on my wey.'
The mouse but squinted doun his snoot
And wi' a breenge was by.

Or lang he cam to his ain door
Doun be a condie hole;
And thocht, as he was stappin owre:
"vermin are ill to thole."

 

Fortunately a glossary was provided:

 

hirplin=limping
louse=a parasitic insect
trauchl'd=exhausted with overwork
hippit=stiff
heist=aid
snoot=nose
breenge=rush forward recklessly
condie=drain
thole=suffer, put up with

 

Still making my way through Wuthering Heights.  Knowing the plot allows me time for other considerations--like how the story is being told and how we as readers are being manipulated in the telling.  Do we really trust Nelly Dean?

 

I also wonder if part of the problem that some readers have with the novel is the lack of sympathetic characters.  No one is particularly likeable; there is no one we want to champion.  What we have instead is atmosphere--lots of it--and a story of obsession.  Too much brooding for my Flufferton friends, but overall a book worth reading again.

 

HoMW:  bookmarked 19/85

 

The Golden Legend:  bookmarked 24/182

[Jane in NC]

Unbelievably, I'm still keeping up with the goodreads schedule for Ulysses and just finished episode 12.

 

I should finish Everyman (Roth) by tomorrow night and am still really enjoying Pride and Prejudice. 

 

Everyman is a somewhat depressing book. OK, a really depressing book. It's about getting older, unfixable family mistakes, death. A real "feet of clay" book. It makes me think a lot about how we perceive our parents and how they really are as erring humans. And how our children perceive us. Sigh.

 

It has been ages since I have read a Philip Roth novel.  I put Everyman on my list for the next time I need a really depressing book.

 

[Lady Florida.]

Lately I haven't had as much reading time as I would like.

 

I'm still going back and forth between Bitch in a Bonnet and Northanger Abbey and enjoying my choice to read Austen this way. I'm also still reading Good Omens for IRL book club, and listening to The Lost City of Z, which was a library hold that came in so I had to start it.

 

I put The Good Lord Bird, which Stacia recommended last week, on my to-read list. My library has the ebook available now, and I'm resisting the urge to go ahead and download it. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but with my reduced reading time that life has been throwing at me, I don't want to waste a loan period and not be able to finish it. I also don't want to drop anything else I'm reading so I can read the library book. 

 

ETA: I just want to clarify that when I said life has given me less reading time I didn't mean anything was wrong. It's just general busyness of life.

[Stacia]

For the Austen fans & because she's one of the BaW authors of the month:

Teenage Jane Austen Wrote Hilarious, Racy Parody Stories for Her Family

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

Still making my way through Wuthering Heights.  Knowing the plot allows me time for other considerations--like how the story is being told and how we as readers are being manipulated in the telling.  Do we really trust Nelly Dean?

 

 

 

I wish I had been able to continue reading it at least the way you are reading it. Before I quit, I did start to consider Nelly as an unreliable narrator. 

[Lady Florida.]

I am currently finishing my second China Bayles mystery of the weekend. This is a great series by Susan Wittig Albert that I have been reading for many years. Here is a link to the author's websitehttp://www.abouthyme.com/China/index.shtmlin case anyone wants to explore. The main character is a former lawyer who moves to a small Texas town and opens a herb shop. Each chapter begans with an appropriate description of a herb. She always encounters a mystery usually with a murder. The characters are really well developed in this series, it has been nice to catch up with my friends. ;)

 

I read the first 3 or 4 of those books many years ago then stopped. The thing is, I don't remember why I stopped. I know they're quite formulaic but I still enjoyed them so I don't think that was the reason. I wonder if my library didn't have the next one, and maybe I just forgot about the series. I might have to put it back on my mysteries list.

[Loesje22000]

Being ill this week, so low reading results.

The week before I became Ill I read 'The Lady with the Camelias' from Alexandre Dumas Fils ( in Dutch)

And I recieved :'Longbourn' it was mentioned earlier this year.

 

I love it...!!! :)

I am reading slow, but glad I managed to read something in English again...

 

DD and DH are now ill, so I have only snippets of time to read.

[Stacia]

:grouphug: , loesje. Hope you're all feeling better quickly.

[idnib]

That's what having geeky teenagers will do for you. Oh how I tried to steer her toward the humanities....

 

Have you considered Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

[Ali in OR]

Finished three this week! And only added two to the "to be read" pile, so making progress!

 

First one done was As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley--the latest Flavia book. You know, I always have trouble remember his titles--I almost typed As Chimney Sweepers Bite the Dust. I think that could have worked too, though perhaps it's not as poetic. I still enjoy Flavia but can't say this was my favorite. Looks like she's returning to England and I think that's a good thing.

 

I finished Wild by Cheryl Strayed, our book club pick this month. Not one I would have read on my own. I spent my childhood backpacking and there were aspects of the book I appreciated (though not the fact that she entirely skipped over the portion of the Pacific Crest Trail that covered our backpacking exploits--the High Sierra--due to snow). I had trouble with the fact that I didn't really like the author--liked her writing fine, just didn't really like her as a person or the choices she made.

 

Also finished Of Mice and Men which my dd is reading in her English class. This was another hard one for me to read--not pleasure reading at all. I don't know how old I was when I first read it, but I either didn't understand it or mis-remembered it. I totally did not understand George's motivation for his action and it really colored my view of the book. I understand and appreciate George more now, but still find the book difficult to read.

 

Currently reading Villette since it is Brontë month. I have to say this is not a Flufferton read. Not fluffy enough. Not romantic enough. I thought there wasn't going to be romance at all, but about a third of the way into it I'm starting to see signs of some. There is a lot of French conversation that I have to basically skip unless my rudimentary Latin or high school Spanish can help me take a guess at it. And I have to confess that I'm starting to skim/skip some of Lucy Snowe's sermonizing. Or Charlotte Brontë's sermonizing.

 

On the "To Be Read" pile:

1. The Girls of Atomic City--Amazon delivered it this week and I will probably spring it on my book club Tuesday night as the next pick. I hoped to start it before that to see if it would fit our club, but dh has stolen it. I ask him if we'll like it and he can't really say, but HE really likes it!

2. Being Mortal--also arrived from Amazon this week. Our church bible study group will read it. Not Christian--just about end of life issues, but we all have parents who are approaching this stage of life.

3. Fahrenheit 451--another dd has to read

4. Moriarty--just for fun

 

May have to add a Heyer to the pile just because Villette isn't fluffy enough for Flufferton February.

[Ali in OR]

 

Now, I've gone back to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte in an attempt to finish it this month. Though I like it well enough, I keep thinking of the tiny print, fairly large number of pages (about 500), & looking at the fact that I'm just now to page 150.... And, I keep thinking, 'What on Earth is there to say that is going to take up that many more pages???' :lol: :blush:

 

 

I can relate as I work my way through her sister's Villette!

[Stacia]

I can relate as I work my way through her sister's Villette!

 

Yeah, I'm just not that into it. It's fine, but I keep wondering if I *really* want to read another 350 pages of (mostly) angst & ruffled feathers. :001_rolleyes:  (I've read a spoiler or two about the book I'm reading, so I know there's a bit more than that, but still....)

[HootOwl]

Hello all!

 

I have browsed through these threads before over the last couple of years and have thoroughly enjoyed learning of all kinds of wonderful books out there that everyone is reading.  This year I'm hoping to complete the challenge myself and be a part of the discussion.  My biggest obstacle, however, is limiting my time online---which I usually justify to my husband and family as reading time because I'm reading news and forums like this (but also Pinterest and other black-hole, time-sucking places)---and actually read BOOKS!  

 

I'm starting late, but I have put together a few personal challenges that I want to do in addition to a couple of the challenges that you are encouraging.  I have started, but not yet finished, The History of the Ancient World, but I'm going to put that on hold and jump on with The History of the Medieval World.  I figure I need some encouragement and accountability to stick with my desire to read it, and having a manageable weekly schedule to follow will make it much more likely that I will do so.

 

I want to revisit The Well Educated Mind and start another attempt on some of the classics.  I also want to broaden my reading horizons a bit, so I hope to complete the Around the World challenge for reading 2-3 books from each continent.    Finally, I'm very curious to see the monthly challenges to try something different every once in a while.

 

Thanks allowing me to jump on board a little late.  I've got some catching up to do!

 

Lisa

 

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

 

What I'm reading now:

• American Sniper, by Chris Kyle
• Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
• Off the Sidelines, by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
• Poetry for Young People - Robert Frost   

Year-long reads:

• The Bible (following OwnIt365 reading plan)
• A Year with C.S. Lewis:  Daily Readings from His Classic Works
• History of the Medieval World (reading along with TWTM group)
• Gardening Month by Month in Ohio, by Debra Knapke and Alison Beck

Ready to start soon:

• Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling
• The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from the 1920's Farm Wives, by Laurie Aaron Hird

Personal Challenges:

• Harry Potter series (to go along with the Harry Potter quilt I am making)
• C.S. Lewis (spiritual works, biographies, Chronicles of Narnia Series, etc.)
• Poetry for Young People series (11 separate titles throughout the year)

 

 

 

 

 

[Cinder]

Hey, I finally found you when you're only on page 1. Somehow I missed these posts the last few weeks. Not much progress. I finished A Red Herring Without Mustard during week 3 (or maybe 4?) and started 1Q84. I like it so far--I'm on chapter 9. I thought about getting it on audiobook so I could knit while "reading" but when I listened to the audio sample I didn't think I could bear the female narrator's voice (which was the only one I heard) for that many hours. So I expect this book will last me quite a few more weeks. :D

[Lady Florida.]

 

 

 

Thanks allowing me to jump on board a little late.  I've got some catching up to do!

 

Lisa

 

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• Gardening Month by Month in Ohio, by Debra Knapke and Alison Beck

 

 

Welcome! Just pop in whenever you can. Don't let us take away from your reading time as that's not what this thread is all about. Some here are chatty, some show up occasionally. Some read a lot but don't post much. Often many of us go in phases where we post often, and then not so much (or at all) for a while.

 

 

I have a book called Month by Month Gardening in Florida, by Tom MacCubbin. Of all my gardening books, and I have quite a few, that's the one I refer to the most.

[JennW in SoCal]

 

Now, I've gone back to The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte in an attempt to finish it this month. Though I like it well enough, I keep thinking of the tiny print, fairly large number of pages (about 500), & looking at the fact that I'm just now to page 150.... And, I keep thinking, 'What on Earth is there to say that is going to take up that many more pages???' :lol: :blush:

 

 

Tenant does start off slow, but I hope you find it worth your while when you get to the meat of the story.  I know you don't want to know anything about a story before you read it so I'll stop myself, but really -- stick with it.  I thought it was very powerful, to use a cliched term, but I found myself drawn into and profoundly moved by Helen's story.

 

 

 

 

 

Currently reading Villette since it is Brontë month. I have to say this is not a Flufferton read. Not fluffy enough. Not romantic enough. I thought there wasn't going to be romance at all, but about a third of the way into it I'm starting to see signs of some. There is a lot of French conversation that I have to basically skip unless my rudimentary Latin or high school Spanish can help me take a guess at it. And I have to confess that I'm starting to skim/skip some of Lucy Snowe's sermonizing. Or Charlotte Brontë's sermonizing.

 

On the "To Be Read" pile:

1. The Girls of Atomic City--Amazon delivered it this week and I will probably spring it on my book club Tuesday night as the next pick. I hoped to start it before that to see if it would fit our club, but dh has stolen it. I ask him if we'll like it and he can't really say, but HE really likes it!

 

4. Moriarty--just for fun

 

May have to add a Heyer to the pile just because Villette isn't fluffy enough for Flufferton February.

 

 

(oooooh, look -- I managed a cumbersome cut and paste multi-quote!!)

 

When I read Villette I wished I had an edition that would translate all that French!  I found it really annoying!  I agree it doesn't have quite the compelling story to move you along the way Jane Eyre does. As I recall it is fairly autobiographical, so I read on to the end with that in mind, but I haven't since wanted to revisit it the way I would Jane Eyre.

 

 

I've been meaning to pick up Girls of Atomic City.  My mom was actually one of those girls -- she worked there doing secretarial type stuff during summer vacations from college. I know the book doesn't really cover women like her, but I'd still like to read it.  

 

I was just telling my ds about Moriarty, and we both are looking forward to it.  We both really liked Horowitz's last Sherlock Holmes novel, House of Silk.  Btw, there is a short story about Holmes and Watson by Horowitz available for $1.99 today at the Kindle store

[Jane in NC]

Why take a walk on the moors with the Brontes?

 

 

No, that is not the reason.

 

Winter is a time for introspection--at least for me.  Instead of gossiping with Miss Austen at dinner parties and balls, I am enjoying thinking about intertwined families, obsession, isolation, and manipulation.  Could be taken from today's headlines...

 

Book link.

[Chrysalis Academy]

I'm taking the day off and reading today. It's lovely.  I finished The Friendly Persuasion.  I enjoyed it immensely. It is a very sweet and touching and heartfelt book, it made tears come to my eyes several times, though it wasn't exactly sad - it was wise, I think, in an understated and calm way.  Shannon is finishing it up and then we're going to watch the movie. I have a hard time understanding exactly how it will be adapted - the book is a series of stories about this Quaker family, it's not really a story with a plot or anything.  So I expect the movie will be quite different.  So far Movies as Literature has been good for us - it's made me read things and watch things that are new to me and that I'd never have picked up/watched otherwise.

[Stacia]

Kathy, I keep thinking about your post from last week re: wanting to be able to set up different challenges for yourself on Goodreads.

 

One way I think you could do it would be to add a shelf for each different challenge or category you want to read. I'd also put them by year too. So, some shelves like:

2015 classics (goal 21)

2015 women authors (goal 30)

2015 time travel (goal 8)

2015 around the world (goal 12)

 

It's neither perfect nor a necessarily elegant solution, but maybe it would meet your need of tracking everything on GR, while also separating the books you've read into the categories you're wanting to track for the year.

 

 

[6packofun]

I've been enjoying quite a bit of fluff.  :)  I read the first 6 books of the Dresden Files series over the past month.  This month I finished the Paradox trilogy by Rachel Bach (Fortune's Pawn, Honor's Knight, and Heaven's Queen).  This is a very good sci-fi romp with a bit of romance and one tough heroine.  At times the writing was a smidge amateurish, but the story really hooked me and I jammed through the trilogy.

 

I just finished Five, by Ursula Archer, a pscyh. thriller/mystery with a geocaching twist!  Austrian author, enjoyed it.

 

Oh, before that I read The Cleaner by Paul Cleave.  It was written not long after Darkly Dreaming Dexter and so the similar main character is interesting.  Cleave is from New Zealand and this book was a huge hit for him.  The Cleaner does not live by the code as Dexter does, though!  Fairly gruesome, but I'll be reading more by this author and I believe some characters are recurring throughout his novels.

 

A mystery author that I have enjoyed lately is Lynn Shepherd.  (The Solitary House, A Fatal Likeness) I thoroughly enjoyed her latest in that series called The Pierced Heart which takes this crime novel into the world of Dracula!  Well done weaving that legend into her character's story.

 

Last recent read:  The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain which was just good.  No elaboration.  LOL

[JennW in SoCal]

Last week I started and finished a chunkster fantasy epic, Brandon Sanderson's Words of Radiance, which of course isn't a stand alone book. Oh no, the story couldn't possibly be told in 1000+ pages. This was the second tome in the series and at least 3 more are needed to finish the tale! But, as those of you who've read Sanderson know, the guy writes a good story with interesting characters and all the magic and world building is slipped in without any cringe-inducing, action-breaking, awkward exposition passages.  It is a marvel how he does it, and it was the perfect read for me last week.

 

I've just started listening to Call the Midwife, and so far so good.  I hope there aren't too many detailed birth stories -- I'm not grossed out I just get pathetically sentimental and weepy!!  

 

In my library bag there is a very fun looking historical fiction/mystery by Peter Lovesey, whose Inspector Diamond I've enjoyed, and a Mary Stewart novel, Rose Cottage (I think?).  But the book that is calling me is Chinese Cooking for Diamond Thieves, which I got as a Kindle deal in the last week or 2.  It is about a white guy working as a cook at a Chinese restaurant and how he gets mixed up (through a dame of course) with a mob of Chinese gangsters looking for stolen diamonds.  I couldn't possibly pass it up!

[shukriyya]

[mumto2]

I read the first 3 or 4 of those books many years ago then stopped. The thing is, I don't remember why I stopped. I know they're quite formulaic but I still enjoyed them so I don't think that was the reason. I wonder if my library didn't have the next one, and maybe I just forgot about the series. I might have to put it back on my mysteries list.

Sad to report multiquote still isn't working but I tried....

 

Kathy, I suspect you might like them. It has been a couple of years since I read a China Bayles hence the two back to back. The characters are real with interests beyond the murder that I share. I remember one of the earlier books as being hard for me because a favourite character had breast cancer and the tone of the book was depressing which might have been why you stopped. The books have gone back to normal.

 

Edited....added a missing word.

[Stacia]

Mumto2, my ds is currently reading Jasper Fforde's The Big Over Easy & is enjoying it much more than The Eyre Affair. Thanks to you & your ds for recommending The Big Over Easy as a better read for a teen guy.

[Stacia]

Lisa, glad you're jumping in.

 

Shukriyya, are you just floating & flitting around looking for a book? :laugh:

[Just Robyn]

But Robin, what are you reading?  Oh, did I forget to mention that.  :lol:

 

Currently reading J.D. Robb's Obsession in Death (So very good) and Listening to audiobook Devon Monk's Magic in the Shadows.  Not at the same time, mind you.

 

Added a couple more writing craft books to the stacks for online writing classes which start next week -  Narrative Design by Madison Smart Bell and Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wicked Good Prose by Constance Hale.

 

I've got Narrative Design and Sin and Syntax loaded on the Kindle and ready to read too. :) 

[Just Robyn]

I finished Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress and Sense and Sensibility by Austen. S&S I finished yesterday, which I thought a nice coincidence and a great way to spend Valentine's Day when your dh has to work.

 

Then last night and today I was totally sucked in by a poetry/essay book Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine. This book was very moving, and I know nothing I say will do it justice. From the back:

 

 

What does it mean to be a black citizen in the US of the early twenty-first century? Claudia Rankine's brilliant, terse, and parabolic prose poems have a shock value rarely found in poetry. These tales of everyday life -- whether the narrator's or the lives of young black men like Trayvon Martin and James Craig Anderson -- dwell on the most normal exteriors and the most ordinary of daily situations so as to expose what is really there: a racism so guarded and carefully masked as to make it all the more insidious... Citizen is an unforgettable book."

- Marjorie Perloff

 

And here is one part that struck me.

When you lay your body in the body

entered as if skin and bone were public places,

 

when you lay your body in the body

entered as if you're the ground you walk on,

 

you know no memory should live

in these memories

 

becoming the body of you.

 

And another part because I loved this book and am overflowing with the desire to share it.

 

 

You take things in you don't want all the time. The second you hear or see some ordinary moment, all its intended targets, all the meanings behind the retreating seconds, as far as you are able to see, come into focus. Hold up, did you just hear, did you just say, did you just see, did you just do that? Then the voice in your head silently tells you to take your foot off your throat because just getting along shouldn't be an ambition.

 

 

I am still reading Calvino's Cosmicomics, and have started The Art of the Poetic Line by James Logenbach. I also have a few books I'm deciding between: Henry IV Part 1, Medea, Wired for Story, Fight Club and Jane Eyre. 

[4ofus]

I finished Northanger Abbey a few days ago. It was a pleasant read although I am particularly fond of P&P & I didn't enjoy this one as much.

 

In recent weeks I've also read The Pearl & Of Mice & Men.

 

I'm currently reading something I borrowed from the Kindle Lending Library. I literally do not remember the name of it. I'm enjoying it though, I should finish it tonight.

 

I need to search back through & find the March author challenge. That challenge seems to be the only one I can keep up with :).

[Just Robyn]

I finished Northanger Abbey a few days ago. It was a pleasant read although I am particularly fond of P&P & I didn't enjoy this one as much.

 

In recent weeks I've also read The Pearl & Of Mice & Men.

 

I'm currently reading something I borrowed from the Kindle Lending Library. I literally do not remember the name of it. I'm enjoying it though, I should finish it tonight.

 

I need to search back through & find the March author challenge. That challenge seems to be the only one I can keep up with :).

I believe March is Virginia Woolf. I'm looking forward to trying out Orlando. 

[Kareni]

 This year I'm hoping to complete the challenge myself and be a part of the discussion. 

 

Welcome!

 

 

This month I finished the Paradox trilogy by Rachel Bach (Fortune's Pawn, Honor's Knight, and Heaven's Queen).  This is a very good sci-fi romp with a bit of romance and one tough heroine. 

 

I enjoyed that trilogy also.  Are you aware that Rachel Bach also writes as Rachel Aaron?  Her The Legend of Eli Monpress series looks intriguing as does Nice Dragons Finish Last.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[MicheleinMN]

I believe March is Virginia Woolf. I'm looking forward to trying out Orlando. 

 

 

I just couldn't bring myself to "like" this post.  I have really disliked anything I have ever tried by Virginia Woolf.  Anyone have a recommendation of one of her works that I might be able to tolerate, maybe even like a little bit?

[mumto2]

I just couldn't bring myself to "like" this post. I have really disliked anything I have ever tried by Virginia Woolf. Anyone have a recommendation of one of her works that I might be able to tolerate, maybe even like a little bit?

I have to admit that I need find something palatable myself.

 

Stacia- Glad your ds is enjoying the Jasper Fforde.

[melmichigan]

I finished reading the rest of longer books in The Night Stalkers and The Firehawks books by M. L. Buchman.  

 

Robins post was the last straw.  I've been hearing about J.D. Robb's  Obsession in Death all week, so I've given in and downloaded it to my kindle to read next.

 

I'm also slowly working on Dante's The Divine Comedy 1: Inferno translated by John D. Sinclair (Oxford University Press Edition), and listening to the Yale Open Course: Dante in Translation.  

[Lady Florida.]

I just couldn't bring myself to "like" this post.  I have really disliked anything I have ever tried by Virginia Woolf.  Anyone have a recommendation of one of her works that I might be able to tolerate, maybe even like a little bit?

 

:bigear: Maybe I'll find something I can tolerate, by reading their suggestions for you.

 

I feel the same as you do about Woolf.