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Book a Week 2015 - wk 13: all things virginia woolf


Robin M
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Good morning, my lovelies.  We are on week 13 in our quest to read 52 books.  Welcome back to our regulars, anyone just joining in, and to all who follow our progress. Mr. Linky is all set up on the 52 books blog to link to your reviews. The link is also in my signature. 

 

On March 28, 1941, Virginia Woolf filled her coat pockets with rocks and walked into the River Ouse.  She had been battling depression for a very long time and decided to give up the fight. In a letter to her husband, she said:
 
I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can’t concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don’t think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can’t fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can’t even write this properly. I can’t read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can’t go on spoiling your life any longer.

 

 
 
 
 
Despite her battle with depression for much of her life, Woolf was a forward thinker and intellectual writer whose compelling stories were full of stream of consciousness and introspective writing.  Along with her novels, she published numerous short stories, essays and wrote powerful letters.  For more information on Woolf's life, check out The Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain. 
 

I currently have Mrs. Dalloway on my shelves and will be reading it in honor of Virginia Woolf.  Join me in reading her works.  All are available online here at The University of Adelaide.




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History of the Medieval World - The Huns  423 - 450 AD  (pp 106 - 114)
 
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Let's do the happy dance.We figured out how to unlock all our old threads (thank you Kareni for the suggestion) and I'll be deleting all the tags over a period of time so they can be accessed. 
 
What are you reading this week?
 
 
 
 
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I have Mrs. Dalloway in my stacks to read for Virginia Woolf Read.  Contemplating A Room of One's Own

 

In the midst of various writing craft books for online creative writing class which is keeping me busy writing. Fun, fun, fun.  Will recap next week for the first of the month thread.

 

 

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First and foremost, I miss Violet Crown!!  But today marks Palm Sunday which means that she'll return in a week.  Hallelujah!

 

It was VC who recommended John Buchan's short stories over his better known classic thrillers (like The Thirty Nine Steps).  I enjoyed The Strange Adventures of Mr. Andrew Hawthorn & other Stories, pieces originally published between 1896 and 1932.  Many of Buchan's stories begin at the club with a group of men chatting. They may be London based but their view is wider and, like Buchan himself, many of these characters display a love of open spaces far from offices or governmental buildings.  Their sense of adventure often draws them into interesting circumstances where their ethics and wills are tested and oddities of humanity are observed.

 

I had been reading a story or two a week from this book but picked up the pace last week while spending some time with family.  These stories kept my focus in the early morning hours while drinking coffee, before the rest of the gang awoke in our rental cottage.  I did squeeze in a few pages of Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies.  Someone on this thread told me that Mantel was better in identifying who "he" is in this book.  Mantel's use of the pronoun in Wolf Hall often confused me although "he" meant Cromwell (and not one of the other men involved in the scene).  No question--this Man Booker Prize winner is well done, but the sense of foreboding that I have prevents me from picking up this particular book every time I have a chance to read. 

 

Thus I am adding something silly to the stack.  Does Santa Exist? by Eric Kaplan (a writer for The Big Bang Theory television program and a PhD candidate in philosophy at Berkeley) is a humorous look at philosophical ideas.  I have read two chapters and it is keeping my attention.  Let's see if it is maintained.

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A funny thing. I mentioned in the last thread The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle for James Joyce's Ulysses as a future read and DH, without knowing I was thinking about it, brought it home from the library yesterday! So that's on my list to start.

 

I also read the first chapter of Euphoria last night and am still working on Authority from the Southern Reach trilogy. I've almost finished Herodotus (Chapter 1) in On History. Oh, and for a guilty pleasure, I never got around to reading the last Jack Reacher book Personal and DH brought that home yesterday as well, for both of us.

 

The Western Canon goodreads group will have a short read (TBA) starting this week before The Pilgrim's Progress. I might skip the interim read in order to get caught up on this other stuff before Chronicles of Narnia. 

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Last week I finished Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni.  I went in and out of enjoying the book, but any book that makes me more introspective, like the Betrothed did, makes it feel like a worthwhile read.  The dominating characteristic of each character reflects many conflicting emotions that many of us experience.  The author has a sense of humor and effortlessly speaks directly to the reader in some instances.  The book explained the background for the time period in great detail, particularly the war of the times and the Plague in Milan in the early 1600s.  Culturally fitting for Italy at the time, it deals with good and evil from a Catholic perspective.  I would recommend it!

 

Next up, Brooke Sheilds' There Was A Little Girl.

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I finished a book of short stories by Mary Gaitskill: Bad Behavior. These stories often feature people who make alternative life choices (drugs, prostitution, etc.) and show the emotional effects of living in a society with shame and humiliation built into the system.

 

I also read a comic anthology that I got from Kickstarter: After Midnight. I loved the variety here. And there were great story ideas, but each story was told, or often just suggested or hinted at, in just one to four pages. I would have liked more.

 

I am still reading No Matter the Wreckage and a bunch of writing books, and I'm having trouble making myself break into a novel. I look at the size of The Junglewhich was chosen by my friend as the next book we'll read together, and I just think Arrgh! I don't have time for that right now! I hope to take several deep breaths and read the first chapter today. We'll see. 

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Between head aches and the Young Entrepreneurship Regional competition this past week has been a hellish week, but none of my companies made nationals (thanks be!) so things on that front should calm down. This week we only work four days (Good Friday is a holiday) and then I have Easter break so I am looking forward to a reading week. I did get some Woolf read today and am planing on reading more during the week. I'm reading To The Lighthouse and so far I am...confused. I have no clue what is going on, if we are jumping back and forth in time or if we are on a linear progression, and who the heck everyone is. But I shall keep going. Other than that I am reading romance books and listening to A Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer Fleming (a book and series I think many of my fellow BAWers would enjoy)

 

My firsties had to choose their free reading books for this term on Friday. The rules were: at least 200 pages (I did allow some 198 page books 'cause I'm cool like that), no Twilight, and as the afternoon progressed also vetoed Fifty Shades of Grey (both Twilight and Fifty Shades were vetoed on account of the fact that the language is dubious at best). There were a few books chosen that I wasn't terribly happy about but I have decided that they fall under the At least they are reading banner. Two students made me very happy. Student 1 has SEVERE dyslexia and I told him he could listen to an audio book instead. He still chose a reading book! And student 2 is a Somali boy who hasn't been in the country for more than 3 years. He chose A Separate Peace. He is a sweetheart and super smart and he just makes me happy. His classmates don't always get how smart he is but before they graduate I think he will blow their socks off.

 

Read so far this year:

 

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

13. Murphy's Law by Rhys Bowen

14. Än finns det hopp by Karin Wahlberg

15. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

16. Shooting for the Stars by Sarina Bowen

17. The Deal by Elle Kennedy

18. Coming in from the Cold by Sarina Bowen

19. The Hook Up by Kristen Callihan

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I am still reading No Matter the Wreckage and a bunch of writing books, and I'm having trouble making myself break into a novel. I look at the size of The Junglewhich was chosen by my friend as the next book we'll read together, and I just think Arrgh! I don't have time for that right now! I hope to take several deep breaths and read the first chapter today. We'll see. 

 

The Jungle is the reason I am very suspicious of processed meat, especially when I am in the US. I read it in high school and I try very very hard not to think about it.

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This piece has some lovely art some of which incorporates books.

 

Daughter channels grief into stunning ‘Wonderland’ photos

 

and I'll repost this in case some missed it yesterday:

 

 


Here's a fun piece from BookRiot ~

 

A Storied Stay for Literary Lovers: 10 Great Bookish Hotels by Kelly Jensen

 

I like the sink in Wonderland House!

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

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Gail Carriger's Soulless was so much fun. I enjoyed most of the characters which is surprisingly, because usually there is one that I kind of want to kick that I'm supposed to be rooting for. ;) I wanted to drink a cup of tea while wrapped in a blanket the entire time I read the book. I'll definitely be looking for the rest in the series.

 

I cracked open J.D. Robb's Festive In Death this afternoon but was promptly interrupted from sitting down with it as I saw my 3 year old feeding our 10lb mini dachshund half a bag of (MY) chocolates. Arg! 

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There were a couple of book and library-related articles in the LA Times this morning.  The first one I think Teacher Zee would especially appreciate, in light of her experiences in directing students to choose books for free reading. But it is a story to warm the heart of any book lover: Mendez High School reading club.

 

The second item was a review of Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World's Most Unusual Libraries.  From the review, "A perfect square at 7 by 7 inches, the book acts as a digestible short visual history of libraries, going back hundreds of years."  There's a series of photos from the book at the link.

 

As for my reading, I'm getting a huge kick out of West of the West, the series of essays about different facets of modern California. I chortled all the way through the section on the clashes between the older and newer generation of hippies and the changing pot growing culture up in far northern, coastal California.  I'm also about half way through listening to Elantris, total mind candy for when I'm driving or quilting.  

 

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Finished two more mysteries for Mystery March. I thought Anthony Horowitz's Moriarty was well done; my advice is no cheating! Do not read ahead on this one (I have a bad habit of that). Then I picked up my copy of Christie's Ten Little Indians, aka And Then There Were None, and polished that off in a day or so. As I opened it, I found an inscription from my husband who must have given it to me, probably when we were dating. "The best Agatha Christie ever!" he wrote. That was a sweet find. And I did not remember "who done it", which is usually my problem when re-reading a mystery--I usually solve it without really remembering it. Not this time.

 

Up next: I will participate in the C.S. Lewis space trilogy read, so will try to pick up Out of the Silent Planet this week. A library hold came up--The Geography of You and Me--I'm thinking this is one Kareni mentioned a while back??? And while I'm waiting impatiently for Pratchett's Mort and Reaper Man to become available, I picked up his Dodger. Not sure when I'll get to it as a day later the library informed me that Mort is now available. So probably Out of the Silent Planet and Geography of You and Me this week (library day is Thursday, so Mort will be picked up then).

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I'm still working on Portrait of a Lady.  I'm less than halfway done, but I might finish it in the next week or so.

 

I don't like it very much.  The female characters are all pretty unpleasant so far, and they appear to be based on stereotypes held by someone without much world knowledge.  But it's not so bad that I'll refuse to finish it.

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I enjoyed A Room of One's Own, but I think that's all the Virginia I will do for awhile.  I started Out of the Silent Planet last night, so I guess I'm getting a head start on April.  I also abandoned English, August, my IRL book group's selection.  I just can't do a book about a spoiled, self-indulgent male from India at the moment, as it's sprinkled with a fair bit of misogyny.  I'm feeling rather hostile to that attitude given some of the recent horrific attacks on women there.  I am reading a difficult book, Rue du Retour, which Stacia posted about and gifted me with  back in January. It's been on my stack, but I needed a little space after finishing Wiesel and 1984 before I could take it in. I am enjoying (?) it - that's not the right word, but you guys know what I mean.  I am appreciating it, let's say.

 

I also started an absolutely gorgeous book called Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo.  It is a fabulously photographed book on trees - close-up, botanical drawing style photographs.  I thought it would just be a beautiful coffee-table style book, and got it for the pictures, but it's actually a wonderful natural history/botany read.

 

And another Shannon preview - The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox.  It's about the discovery and deciphering of the Linear B script of Crete.  I think she'll enjoy it - a main focus of the book is the little known story of Alice Kober, who was a key figure in deciphering the script. 

 

Finished this week:

48. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Phillip Pullman

47. The Glorious Adventure - Richard Halliburton

46. Taran Wanderer - Lloyd Alexander (with the kids)

45. Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles - Jeanette Winterson

44. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne (audiobook)

 

 

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I read The Hiding Place - 4 Stars. Although this book had a bit of a slow start, it was truly uplifting. Reading stories like this inspire me to improve myself. 

 

272676.jpg

 

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.

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I also started an absolutely gorgeous book called Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo.  It is a fabulously photographed book on trees - close-up, botanical drawing style photographs.  I thought it would just be a beautiful coffee-table style book, and got it for the pictures, but it's actually a wonderful natural history/botany read.

 

Thanks for mentioning this. I've been looking for a tree book to supplement Ellen McHenry's Botany unit that we just started on the first day of spring. 

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Thanks for mentioning this. I've been looking for a tree book to supplement Ellen McHenry's Botany unit that we just started on the first day of spring. 

 

I was just thinking this is an ideal Botany living book.  Another on my radar is What a Plant Knows: a Field Guide to the Senses

 

http://www.amazon.com/What-Plant-Knows-Field-Senses/dp/0374533881

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Sounds yummy! :)

 

Since my kids have recently fallen in love with all things nutella I have to ask about the cake. Can I have the recipe when you get the chance?

Here it is. Another WTM'er posted it last week. 

 

It is a VERY rich cake. 

 

:drool5:  Strawberries aren't even my favorite but I think we should all come to your house for tea time!

 

 

 

I'm sorry but I do not understand the phrase (I bolded) above.

 

 

I finished A Fine Young Man and have started on Orlando. I did not know Woolf committed suicide. How sad. Her letter made my tear up. 

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I also started an absolutely gorgeous book called Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo.  It is a fabulously photographed book on trees - close-up, botanical drawing style photographs.  I thought it would just be a beautiful coffee-table style book, and got it for the pictures, but it's actually a wonderful natural history/botany read.

 

 

Thanks for mentioning this. I've been looking for a tree book to supplement Ellen McHenry's Botany unit that we just started on the first day of spring. 

 

Speaking of trees....I'm waiting for a library book to show up on my hold shelf, Trees in Paradise: A California History.  Don't know how much botany it will have as it is more of a lens through which to explore California history by telling the story of 4 kinds of local (though not necessarily native) trees: giant redwoods, eucalyptus, citrus and palm trees. The few reviews I've seen are glowing.  

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Speaking of trees....I'm waiting for a library book to show up on my hold shelf, Trees in Paradise: A California History.  Don't know how much botany it will have as it is more of a lens through which to explore California history by telling the story of 4 kinds of local (though not necessarily native) trees: giant redwoods, eucalyptus, citrus and palm trees. The few reviews I've seen are glowing.  

 

I grew up in CA but my kids are native Oregonians. When we drive down I-5 to visit family, they refer to CA as palm tree world! I never really thought of CA as having that many palm trees (I grew up in the Central Valley, not So Cal, and we drive through the northern half of the state). The citrus trees are probably most meaningful to me with Redwoods a close second. There were orange groves around my home town and the house I grew up in had grapefruit trees and orange trees. Our family vacations were always backpacking trips in the Sierras and I also fondly remember trips to see the General Sherman tree. I think there is actually a distinction between redwoods and the giant sequoias, but they look the same to me! Even eucalyptus has some meaning for me as they were all over my college campus. Let us know what you think of the book--I see my library has it and even has it available. May have to check it out!

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I grew up in CA but my kids are native Oregonians. When we drive down I-5 to visit family, they refer to CA as palm tree world! I never really thought of CA as having that many palm trees (I grew up in the Central Valley, not So Cal, and we drive through the northern half of the state). The citrus trees are probably most meaningful to me with Redwoods a close second. There were orange groves around my home town and the house I grew up in had grapefruit trees and orange trees. Our family vacations were always backpacking trips in the Sierras and I also fondly remember trips to see the General Sherman tree. I think there is actually a distinction between redwoods and the giant sequoias, but they look the same to me! Even eucalyptus has some meaning for me as they were all over my college campus. Let us know what you think of the book--I see my library has it and even has it available. May have to check it out!

 

My college boy and I were in awe of all the trees up in Oregon when we were there visiting colleges.  And in awe of all the tree trunks and branches stacked up on flat bed trailer trucks.  He knew he wanted to attend college some place with "real trees" -- not palm trees that are all trunk, or those pesky and ready to burn eucalypts that surround our house. He turned down Willamette for a small school in Ohio -- I would have loved going to visit him in Oregon!!

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Woolf's suicide letter to her dh made me tear up also. I am glad I read Orlando the other week (but I am not planning to pick up another book of hers for this week's reading). Love the literary themed hotels. Wouldn't it be so fun to have tea at the Alice in Wonderland hotel?

 

No real reading progress to report here. I did start a very short book (Varamo by Cesar Aira), but it's not striking my fancy. Normally, it might be the type of book that would, but I'm just not in the right reading mindset right now for whatever reason.

 

I did run to a big fundraiser yard sale w/ my parents yesterday & ended up picking up C.S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Planet for 50 cents, so I guess I'm ready when that challenge rolls around.

 

I do want to find something to read but I have no idea what I'm in the mood for. Life has been busy, hectic, & stressful at times & I feel like it has put me off my reading groove. I need & WANT to find it again. Sigh. :willy_nilly:

 

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?)
  • Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, pub. by Viking (Penguin Group). 3 stars. Nigeria. (YA fantasy lit in the vein of HP but with a West African base of myth & legend.)
  • Under the Frangipani by Mia Couto, trans. from the Portuguese by David Bookshaw, pub. by Serpent’s Tail. 3 stars. Mozambique. (Murder mystery that ultimately examines the things that kill a people, a country, a place; told through a magical realism lens of the living & the dead, traditions vs. modern mores, colonization against freedom, & war facing off against peace.)
  • Gassire’s Lute: A West African Epic, trans. & adapted by Alta Jablow, illus. by Leo & Diane Dillon, pub. by Dutton. 4 stars. West Africa, incl. Ghana & Burkina Faso. (Children’s poetic book [part of the epic of Dausi], telling of Gassire who gives up his noble lineage & warrior life to become a bard/griot.)

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,…)
  • The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, pub. by Scribner Classics. 4 stars. France & Spain. (Lost generation of post-WW1 expats living, loving, & arguing in France & Spain.)
  • Kismet by Jakob Arjouni, trans. from the German by Anthea Bell, pub. by Melville House (Melville International Crime). 4 stars. Germany. (Tough Turkish-German PI in the middle of a turf war as a Croatian organized crime group tries to take over territory of Albanian & German mobs in Frankfurt. Darkly funny & nicely paced.)
  • The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham, pub. by Penguin Books. 5 stars. France. (Interlinked stories of friends in post-WWI France as they move through life & each finds his or her own version of success.)
  • Cat Out of Hell by Lynne Truss, pub. by Melville House. 3 stars. England. (Creepy, frivolous fun horror/mystery mash-up… and a cat who wants Daniel Craig to voice him if there’s a movie version.)
  • Orlando by Virginia Woolf, pub. by Harcourt Brace & Company. 4 stars. England. (Woolf’s love letter to Vita Sackville-West; story of man/woman Orlando spanning over 300 years of English history. Wordy but redeemed by flashes of profound beauty & brilliance.)
  • Missing Person by Patrick Modiano, trans. from the French by Daniel Weissbort, pub. by David R. Godine (a Verba Mundi Book). 4 stars. France. (After WWII, an amnesiac tries to piece together the people & events of his past. A lyrical, yet spare, examination of identity & history.)

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.)
  • No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy, pub. by Vintage International. 4 stars. USA. (Spare & brutal tale of stolen drug money in Texas. Classic themes which are hard & beautifully-crafted.)

 

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Speaking of trees....I'm waiting for a library book to show up on my hold shelf, Trees in Paradise: A California History.  Don't know how much botany it will have as it is more of a lens through which to explore California history by telling the story of 4 kinds of local (though not necessarily native) trees: giant redwoods, eucalyptus, citrus and palm trees. The few reviews I've seen are glowing.  

 

Nice! I just put it on hold.

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Reading Virginia Woolf's suicide note made me feel so very sad. Depression is so frightening to me because even when I am not in the midst of it, I am still scared that it will come back. (Bell Jar descending, anyone?)

 

Anyway, the only book I finished last week was How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny. I am listening to The Long Way Home; it's the last of her books to be narrated by Ralph Cosham. I am still listening to/reading Orlando, but I doubt I will finish it before the end of the month...maybe by next Sunday though.

 

Edited because the italics keep coming and going.

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Speaking of trees....I'm waiting for a library book to show up on my hold shelf, Trees in Paradise: A California History.  Don't know how much botany it will have as it is more of a lens through which to explore California history by telling the story of 4 kinds of local (though not necessarily native) trees: giant redwoods, eucalyptus, citrus and palm trees. The few reviews I've seen are glowing.  

 

This looks great! Thank you.

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I have started reading an author from the recent Man Booker nominee list: Maryse Condé's I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (winner of France's Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme in 1986).

 

From Library Journal:

In 1692, a Barbadian slave named Tituba was arrested for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. From this historical fact, Conde, an acclaimed writer from Guadeloupe, invents Tituba's life story from childhood to old age. As a child, Tituba sees her mother executed. She is then raised by an old woman who teaches her the African art of healing and communicating with spirits. As a young woman, she is sold to a Puritan minister who leaves Barbados for America. Tituba uses her powers for good purposes, including the healing of her master's family. But her powers are misunderstood by the narrow-minded Puritans, who can only associate witchcraft and the blackness of her skin with evil. Far more than an historical novel, Conde's book makes a powerful social statement about hypocrisy, racial injustice, and feminism through the use of postmodern irony. With a foreword by Angela Davis. Highly recommended.

 

Btw, in the link I gave for Condé, it mentions that her book Windward Heights is a retake/retelling of Wuthering Heights. Mentioning it for those that are fans of Wuthering Heights....

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Our internet has gone really wonky. I can't look anything up so can't even consider linking. :lol:

 

Currently reading a cozy called the Spring Cleaning Murders by Dorothy Cannell on my Kindle. Trying to do one of the weekly challenges (Spring in title from last week) since I am skipping Woolf for now. Might try later in the year. I have read several of the books in this series and enjoyed them. Her characterization is good often funny. A bit over the top like Agatha Raison but not embarrassing to those of us over 50. ;) Set in a small village in England that has more than it's fair share of suspicious deaths.

 

Also reading a book that Goodreads has been desperate for me to read for quite awhile, Daughter of the Game by Tracy Grant. My best friend read my copy while visiting and has continued with the series with mixed reviews. This book is very good. Very much like CS Harris and the St. Cyr series. Apparently the author changed publishers and changed her pen name to Teresa Grant. Just to make things more confusing she changed the names of her supercouple main characters also in the middle of her series. Anyway I hope to continue liking these books. Since BF has figured out some of the odd technical confusion I am hopeful.

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After enjoying Mansfield Park immensely, I am moving on to Persuasion. We are also (as a family) reading Speak and Ender's Game, and I am continuing to slog through The Hole in Our Holiness which is NOT. AN. EASY. READ. LOL. I really, really want to read Gilead by Marianne Robinson,and then her other two books (Lila and something else?) but want to get a bit through the current reading before I begin. 

 

I am also tempted to read a Virginia Woolf book, more likely on audio as I love having these sorts of books to listen to when I drive my children to their 45-minutes-away school.

 

What else? I have been reading a lot of New Yorker fiction---so enjoyable and moving. I subscribe to the digital version of the magazine and tend to get behind, but then I go on a jag and read, read, read. I also read two great stories in the New York Times today that I thought others might be interested in: Inside America's Toughest Prison and The Radical Humaneness of Norway's Prisons. I have always been interested in prison, prison reform, and criminal justice, so I wonder if there's a book out there (or five) that might dig deeper into the American concept of retributive justice, and alteratives to it. I'm all ears :)

___________________________________________________-

 

2015 Book List

 

1 The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty

2 The Motivation Manifesto by Burchard

3 The Magic Art of Tidying

4 The One and Only by Giffin

5 One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World

6 Not that Kind of Girl by dunham

7 The Search for Significance by McGee

8 10% Happier

9 To Kill A Mockingbird--audio book.

10 Unbroken with DS-audio

11 Mastering Tung's Acupuncture--for work

12 You Are A Badass

12 Coming up for Air by George Orwell

13. The Westing Game-audio

14. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen-audio

15. The Hole in our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung

16. Ender’s Game-audio (with kids)

17. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson-audio (with kids)

18. Persuasion by Jane Austen

 

Upcoming Titles

Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness

Bright Shining Lie

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell--upcoming

Gilead by Marilynn Robinson--upcoming

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H.C. Branner prefered writing short stories because "the writer can move in depth without moving in breadth; he can, independent of the passage of time, by means of either a flash or an explosion, cast light upon a circumscribed area of a man's life or personality."

 

Here's part of "Red Horses in the Snow" a short story depicting a boy's reaction to his first kiss.

 

 

A couple of times it was as if his name were being called from down there:  Ni-els!  But perhaps it was something else they were calling or some other Niels.  He had sneaked away without telling anybody, for he wanted to be alone with it now and think about it.  Not think either, not yet, not until he was so far away that non one could see him and hear him.  Oh no, not yet, he said to himself panting as he slid and stumbled down the slippery slope; he felling into a run and couldn’t stop again, at last he fell down and rolled around with the sled on top of him.  For a moment he lay with arms and legs thrown out from his sides and gasped smiling until things went black before his eyes, he wasn’t a human being any more, he was a dead thing and couldn’t get up, he remained lying on his back with his face turned up to the moon.  He smiled and remembered:  while he and she had stood waiting at the top, he had quickly glanced up at the moon, he remembered it as a wild prayer to the distant, pale afternoon moon just before their ride down.  And the last thing of all had been a glimpse of the moon again- the time when she wanted to steer and they tipped over- as he fell with her on top of him, he had seen it dance some place high up or deep down, perhaps he had seen it through her hair or from behind a tower of snow that had risen all of a sudden without a sound.  In that instant he had seen it for the last time.  Now, the twilight, it had sucked itself big and full of light, it was as if it were slowly sinking down towards him, he lay looking straight up at its dead, cold mountains, he saw an arc of black winter branches sail away beneath it and the furthest point below it he himself was sailing with his arms and legs stretched out on the white earth.  He expected it to come all the way down and crush him.  But there’d only be an empty while shell for it to crush, for he was no longer a boy or a human being who lay there looking up at the moon, he was a dead thing.  He had died at the moment when he fell with her on top, and she....

 

After a while he got slowly back onto his feet, for he mustn't think about it yet and by no means about that moment.

 

 

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I read The Hiding Place - 4 Stars. Although this book had a bit of a slow start, it was truly uplifting. Reading stories like this inspire me to improve myself. 

 

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I read this eons again and my sister and I went to see the movie.  All I remember is there wasn't a dry eye when we all walked out of the movie theater.  Left everyone emotionally wrecked.

 

Finished two more mysteries for Mystery March. I thought Anthony Horowitz's Moriarty was well done; my advice is no cheating! Do not read ahead on this one (I have a bad habit of that). Then I picked up my copy of Christie's Ten Little Indians, aka And Then There Were None, and polished that off in a day or so. As I opened it, I found an inscription from my husband who must have given it to me, probably when we were dating. "The best Agatha Christie ever!" he wrote. That was a sweet find. And I did not remember "who done it", which is usually my problem when re-reading a mystery--I usually solve it without really remembering it. Not this time.

 

Up next: I will participate in the C.S. Lewis space trilogy read, so will try to pick up Out of the Silent Planet this week. A library hold came up--The Geography of You and Me--I'm thinking this is one Kareni mentioned a while back??? And while I'm waiting impatiently for Pratchett's Mort and Reaper Man to become available, I picked up his Dodger. Not sure when I'll get to it as a day later the library informed me that Mort is now available. So probably Out of the Silent Planet and Geography of You and Me this week (library day is Thursday, so Mort will be picked up then).

I picked up Out of the Silent Planet on Friday and looking forward to reading it.  

 

Currently reading a new to me author - paranormal romance by Lori Sjoberg: Grave Intentions

 

He's handsome, reliable, and punctual--the perfect gentleman when you want him to be. But this dream man is Death's best agent--and now he's got more than his soul to lose. . .

 

One act of mercy before dying was all it took to turn soldier David Anderson into a reaper--an immortal who guides souls-of-untimely-death into the afterlife. But the closer he gets to atoning for his mortal sin and finally escaping merciless Fate, the more he feels his own humanity slipping away for good. Until he encounters Sarah Griffith. This skeptical scientist can't be influenced by his powers--even though she has an unsuspected talent for sensing the dead. And her honesty and irreverent sense of humor reignite his reason for living--and a passion he can't afford to feel. Now Fate has summoned David to make a devastating last harvest. And he'll break every hellishly-strict netherworld rule to save Sarah. . .and gamble on a choice even an immortal can't win.

 

About all I can handle after trying to analyze and compare Marcel Proust and Gustave Flaubert short stories for writing class. Thank goodness that one is done and over with.  Brain overload this week. 

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Woolf's suicide letter to her dh made me tear up also. I am glad I read Orlando the other week (but I am not planning to pick up another book of hers for this week's reading). Love the literary themed hotels. Wouldn't it be so fun to have tea at the Alice in Wonderland hotel?

 

Reading Virginia Woolf's suicide note made me feel so very sad. Depression is so frightening to me because even when I am not in the midst of it, I am still scared that it will come back. (Bell Jar descending, anyone?)

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

Sorry my sweets.  I seriously didn't know how she died until yesterday when started to look up info to write the post which made it equally hard to write.  Pm me if you need to talk. 

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Mom ninja - Thanks for the recipe. I plan to try it very soon. I went googling for nutella cake yesterday and decided I needed to ask because all the ones I looked at looked like they would end up being dry.

 

Noseinabook - So glad you enjoyed Soulless. My favourite of the series because the soulless concept was new to me and I read a lot of paranormal books. Just a warning about the next book in the series (at least I think it is the next one ) because you will be very irritated with a character. Don't peek, keep reading. You will still like this series at the end of the book. There are fun spin offs from the series also including a young adult one that dd loves! :)

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Those who enjoy paranormal series featuring vampires might enjoy this book which is free to Kindle readers.  I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about the series.

 

The Rest Falls Away (The Gardella Vampire Hunters: Victoria Book 1) by Colleen Gleason

 

From Publishers Weekly

"A promising, enthusiastic beginning to a new paranormal historical series, Gleason's major label debut follows the adventures of a conflicted young vampire hunter in Regency England. Victoria Gardella is a young upper-class lady on the verge of her debut; however, just before her society introduction, she learns that she is the last in a long line of vampire hunters—Venators—and must soon choose whether to embrace her destiny. Her decision is complicated by a reunion with her preadolescent love, Phillip, now marquess of Rockley; her desire for romance doesn't mesh well with her new training schedule, much less with her moonlight patrol duties. Matters are made more difficult by the arrival of the queen of the vampires, Lilith, who seeks a mystical tome that will put a demonic army at her disposal. Though it might seem familiar to fans of Teresa Medeiros's Regency vamp series, Gleason quickly establishes an alluring world all her own. Her Buffyesque lead (Gleason has acknowledged the inspiration) is similarly afflicted, but the change of setting makes an intriguing, witty and addictive twist." (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

 

 

Regards,

Kareni

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I have started reading an author from the recent Man Booker nominee list: Maryse Condé's I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem (winner of France's Grand Prix Litteraire de la Femme in 1986).

 

From Library Journal:

 

Btw, in the link I gave for Condé, it mentions that her book Windward Heights is a retake/retelling of Wuthering Heights. Mentioning it for those that are fans of Wuthering Heights....

 

That looks really interesting, I just put it on hold.  I've always been bothered by the portrayal of Tituba in The Crucible and other things I've read/seen from the period.

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There were a couple of book and library-related articles in the LA Times this morning.  The first one I think Teacher Zee would especially appreciate, in light of her experiences in directing students to choose books for free reading. But it is a story to warm the heart of any book lover: Mendez High School reading club.

 

The second item was a review of Improbable Libraries: A Visual Journey to the World's Most Unusual Libraries.  From the review, "A perfect square at 7 by 7 inches, the book acts as a digestible short visual history of libraries, going back hundreds of years."  There's a series of photos from the book at the link.

 

As for my reading, I'm getting a huge kick out of West of the West, the series of essays about different facets of modern California. I chortled all the way through the section on the clashes between the older and newer generation of hippies and the changing pot growing culture up in far northern, coastal California.  I'm also about half way through listening to Elantris, total mind candy for when I'm driving or quilting.  

 

I did enjoy it very much! I am hoping to start a reading club at my high school. I just need to get rid of some of my other responsibilities first.

 

I went home sick today and I will stay home tomorrow too. The head aches, and the sore neck and a general tiredness have just overwhelmed me and I need to take some time to myself. I've got a doctors appointment on Wednesday though. The nurse was extremely apologetic when she realized how long I had been waiting for an appointment. Hopefully I'll get a start to some answers.

 

I have been sucked into a new (to me) romance series The Rusk University series by Cora Carmack. Set at a fictional Texas University it is about some of the football players. Sweet, funny and with a bit of sex, just what the doctor ordered.

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Mumto2, the YA spin off must be why my husband found it in the teen section of our library. I was kind of surprised to see it there with all of the steamy scenes! 

 

Festive In Death was pretty good. Nothing new for the series but it seems like after the first handful of books, it's pretty formulaic but I enjoy hanging out with the characters for a little bit so it's always worth it to me to pick it up. But I'm not at the bookstore the second it releases to buy it. ;) I'm starting Kevin Hearne's Hexed this morning. 

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Those who enjoy paranormal series featuring vampires might enjoy this book which is free to Kindle readers. I haven't read it, but I've heard good things about the series.

The Rest Falls Away (The Gardella Vampire Hunters: Victoria Book 1) by Colleen Gleason

Thanks, Kareni. I've read one of her books before (The Clockwork Scarab, her YA book featuring Sherlock Holmes' niece and Bram Stoker's sister as teens who help fight paranormal activity in a steampunky, Victorian London).

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So is Orlando depressing or sad? If so I may need to read it later. I'm not in a mood to read something sad.

 

I didn't find it depressing or sad in any way. I think it exudes more of a feel of wonderment. I guess I mean that in the childlike eyes with which one views the world when in love.

 

Sorry for all the individual responses. I'm on a touchpad & can't multiquote.

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That looks really interesting, I just put it on hold. I've always been bothered by the portrayal of Tituba in The Crucible and other things I've read/seen from the period.

I didn't remember her being mentioned there. But, I read it a long time ago (high school) & didn't like it at all at the time.

 

Do you know of other places/books/accounts where she is mentioned?

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I didn't remember her being mentioned there. But, I read it a long time ago (high school) & didn't like it at all at the time.

 

Do you know of other places/books/accounts where she is mentioned?

 

I was just thinking of the movie version of The Crucible as well as the play, I guess.  The Wikipedia entry on Tituba has some other references, but I've not read or seen any of them.  I really hated the movie version of The Crucible.  And Tituba was portrayed especially offensively, I thought.

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Yesterday I read the first book in an urban fantasy series ~ Blue Diablo: A Corine Solomon Novel by Ann Aguirre.  I'd previously read the author's Sirantha Jax science fiction romance series as well as some books in her new adult series both of which I'd enjoyed.  This was my first time reading any of her urban fantasy. 

 

“Gritty, steamy and altogether wonderful urban fantasy.â€â€”New York Times Bestselling Author Patricia Briggs

 

""Right now, I’m a redhead. I’ve been blonde and brunette as the situation requires, though an unscheduled color change usually means relocating in the middle of the night. So far, I’m doing well here. Nobody knows what I’m running from. And I’d like to keep it that way…"

 

Eighteen months ago, Corine Solomon crossed the border and wound up in Mexico City, fleeing her past, her lover, and her “giftâ€. Corine, a handler, can touch something and know its history—and sometimes, its future. Using her ability, she can find the missing—and that’s why people never stop trying to find her. People like her ex, Chance…

 

Chance, whose uncanny luck has led him to her doorstep, needs her help. Someone dear to them both has gone missing in Laredo, Texas, and the only hope of finding her is through Corine’s gift. But their search may prove dangerous as the trail leads them into a strange dark world of demons and sorcerers, ghosts and witchcraft, zombies—and black magic…"

 

I enjoyed the book even though it did get rather crazy in the last third or so.  I'd happily read on in the series (now five books long).

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

 

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Then I picked up my copy of Christie's Ten Little Indians, aka And Then There Were None, and polished that off in a day or so. As I opened it, I found an inscription from my husband who must have given it to me, probably when we were dating. "The best Agatha Christie ever!" he wrote. That was a sweet find. And I did not remember "who done it", which is usually my problem when re-reading a mystery--I usually solve it without really remembering it. Not this time.

 

 

 

That was me last week!  I kept thinking I should remember "who done it" but just couldn't get there!  

 

 

I'm sorry but I do not understand the phrase (I bolded) above.

 

 

 

Sorry  :o  Even though strawberries are not my favorite fruit, ALL of your desserts and goodies sounded totally scrumptious!

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